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Halifax Citadel - Winter Activities - Rifle Firing Demonstration

813 views · Published 27 February 2011 · 2:55 · Indexed 21 October 2026

Channel: Avoiding Chores · 2011 · Travel & Events

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Took advantage of a promotion that Parks Canada held in relation to the Canada winter games. This allowed me to get into the Citadel and enjoy a view of it during the winter.

78th Highlanders on Ice at the Halifax Citadel!

In celebration of our 100th birthday and the 2011 Halifax Canada Games, Parks Canada gives you a glimpse of a Victorian-era winter at the Halifax Citadel. Grab your hat, mitts and camera and explore a 19th century fort in the centre of Halifax. The rifle demonstration used a gun fired daily since 1856!

Winter was a bitter time for close to 400 members of the British army and their families that were stationed at the Citadel, but the soldiers did their best to keep active. An 1856 report by the Army Medical Department to the House of Commons stated that "a skating rink [in the fort] affords the men the means for outdoor exercise and amusement in winter." 

The Halifax garrison contributed to the development of winter sports in Nova Scotia and Canada. In addition to skating and curling, organized hockey games between regimental teams were played on the Dartmouth Lakes, the Northwest Arm, and on the various rinks in the city. One such team was the 78th Highlanders, a British Army regiment that served in Halifax from 1869 to 1871. Today this iconic Highland regiment - and its hockey team - has been recreated for Parks Canada by members of the Halifax Citadel Regimental Association. #avoidingchores

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