Things to Do in Merrickville, Ontario: The Jewel of the Rideau

There are small towns and then there is Merrickville. In 1998, Communities in Bloom named it Canada’s Most Beautiful Village, and the designation is not doing any heavy lifting on its behalf. It genuinely earns it. Victorian stone buildings lining streets that feel untouched by the last hundred years, a UNESCO World Heritage canal running right through the middle of it, more heritage designated buildings per capita than any other comparably sized community in Canada, and a main street full of shops that make you want to stay longer than you planned. Every single time. This guide covers the best things to do in Merrickville, Ontario, and every one of them has been personally field tested, some of them enough times that I’ve stopped pretending it’s research.

I have been to Merrickville in every season, and there is genuinely enough to do for a day trip any time of year. Summer, though, is when the lock station hums with boats and the patios are full, and it’s also when I make a slight detour for pizza that deserves its own section further down.

Merrickville is part of my Small Town Ontario series, and it fits this hub perfectly: a town with real character, real food, real shops, and zero reason to apologize for not being a city.

What is Merrickville, Ontario?

Merrickville is a village of roughly 1,200 people in Eastern Ontario, about an hour south of Ottawa on the Rideau Canal. It was founded in the 1790s when a Loyalist settler named William Merrick established mills at the site’s waterfalls and a community grew up around them. By the time the Rideau Canal was completed in 1832, Merrickville was already an established village, which explains why it looks the way it does. The money came early, they built in stone, and most of it is still standing.

The canal turned out to be the making of the place. More than 50 industries operated here in the 19th century. The railway came through in the 1880s. Then the industrial era wound down, the town pivoted, and Merrickville became what it is today: one of the best-preserved Victorian villages in Ontario and a destination worth planning a proper trip around.

The Rideau Canal itself is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the oldest continuously operated canal system in North America. Most communities along its route could stand to mention that more loudly than they do.

How to Get to Merrickville, Ontario

From Ottawa: Take Highway 416 south toward Kemptville, then head west on Highway 43 into Merrickville. About one hour.

From Toronto: Drive east on Highway 401 toward Kingston, exit onto Highway 15 north toward Smiths Falls, then follow signs into Merrickville. Plan for about three and half hours.

From Kingston: Take Highway 15 north through Smiths Falls and connect to Highway 43 west. Just under an hour.

From Montreal: Take Autoroute 40 west to Highway 401, follow signs toward Brockville, then take Highway 29 north and connect to Highway 43 west. Roughly 2.5 hours.

Once you arrive, park the car and walk. Merrickville is entirely manageable on foot, which is also the correct way to see it.

Small Town Ontario

The Best Small Towns in Ontario

Merrickville is one of the gems in this collection of Ontario’s most charming small towns. See the full list of small towns in Ontario worth a weekend escape.

Top Things to Do in Merrickville Ontario

Walk St. Lawrence Street and Main Street West

This is the main event. The two arteries of downtown Merrickville run through a collection of Victorian stone buildings that have been here since the 1800s and look exactly as they should: unhurried, beautiful, full of independent shops with nothing to do with chains or franchises. Give yourself the whole afternoon. The streets are short enough to walk in fifteen minutes and interesting enough to occupy you for hours.

Do not rush this. Slowness is the point.

Visit the Rideau Canal Locks

The three manually operated locks at the Merrickville Lockstation are among the most impressive along the entire 202-kilometre Rideau Canal. Built between 1826 and 1832, they are still operated by hand, which is one of those details that gets better the longer you stand there watching it. The combined lift of the three locks is 7.4 metres. Parks Canada operates the station and it is worth walking the full grounds.

The park near the locks is ideal for a picnic. Pack something from one of the shops on St. Lawrence Street, find a spot on the grass by the water, and settle in. The Merrickville Cheese Shop sells picnic canal boxes specifically for this purpose, which is information I am handing you as a public service.

Explore the Merrickville Blockhouse Museum

Built in 1832, the blockhouse is the largest on the Rideau Canal and the second largest surviving in Canada. Colonel John By had it constructed because Merrickville was considered a likely target for invasion and needed defending. The Americans never came, which means the blockhouse spent most of its history as a lockmaster’s quarters before becoming a museum. It is packed with artifacts about the history of the Rideau Canal and the surrounding area, it is a National Historic Site, and admission is free. You have no real excuse to skip it.

Find the Woolen Mill Ruins

Just past the lockstation is a ruin worth a detour. The original building was a woolen mill constructed in 1844, destroyed by fire, and now it stands as a quiet stone ruin in a grassy setting by the river. It is a beautiful photo stop and an unexpectedly contemplative ten minutes if you let it be.

Browse the Art Studios and Galleries

Merrickville has more artisans per capita than any other village in Ontario. Gather Brewery and Glassworks is a combination craft brewery and glassblowing studio, which is exactly as interesting as it sounds. You can watch glass being made, buy pieces, and have a beer. Gray Art Glass is worth a stop if you want to see serious custom glass work. The Merrickville Artists Guild Studio Tour runs every September and October if you want to hit a dozen studios across one weekend.

Where to Shop in Merrickville, Ontario

The Wick Witch

This is a must. The outside of the shop alone is worth a slow walk-by, they change the storefront with the seasons, and whatever mood you catch it in makes for the best close-up shot you’ll take all day. Inside, it gets you the second you walk in, on scent alone. The sisters who built this business started selling candles on their front steps and at farmers markets before opening a proper shop downtown. Now they have locations across Canada, but Merrickville is where it started. Everything is Canadian-made and handcrafted here. The natural soy candles are the main event. Their signature citronella candle uses colourful language to make its purpose perfectly clear. Buy it.

Nellie’s Room

This one is not optional. Nellie’s Room is a curated home goods shop that is a perennial favourite for me, no matter what time of year I visit. Beautiful, considered, exactly the right things. Notably though, they carry wool blankets by Patrick King, including Cape Breton and Nova Scotia tartan, and I say this as someone who has left with both and felt absolutely no regret about it. If you want to bring something home from Merrickville then stop in at Nellie’s and find your next treasure.

Pickle and Myrrh

The caramel shop. Do not leave Merrickville without stopping here. Handmade artisan caramels in flavours you would not expect, in bags you will absolutely buy for gifts and then fail to give away. Be gentle with yourself, it is a mistake we all make. Worth knowing: Pickle and Myrrh is based in Merrickville, but their products show up in gift shops and cafes in other small towns throughout the region, so keep an eye out for them as you go. Finding a bag at a random shop in Perth feels like a small gift from the universe.

Mrs. McGarrigle’s Fine Food Shop

A Merrickville institution. You’ve no doubt seen Mrs. McGarrigle’s in small town shops across Ontario but the legend starts here. Around since 1988, Mrs. McGarrigle’s makes award-winning mustards on the premises in flavours like red wine and garlic and chipotle lime, and the shop is the kind of place where you go in for one jar and leave with a completely revised pantry plan. People drive from Ottawa specifically for the mustard. This is not an exaggeration.

Country Bumpkins

Home decor, gifts, and some of the best fudge in Merrickville. Good for the house, good for gifts, good for standing in the middle of the shop eating fudge and pretending you are still deciding.

Gather Brewery and Glassworks

Also listed under things to do, because it belongs in both categories. Buy the glass art, pick up local beer, or book yourself into a glassblowing workshop. Covers most categories of a good afternoon.

Small Town Ontario

Things to Do in Almonte, Ontario

Almonte is about 45 minutes from Merrickville and well worth combining into a weekend. My full guide to things to do in Almonte covers the waterfalls, the shopping on Mill Street, and more small town charm than one trip can hold.

Where to Eat in Merrickville, Ontario

Iron Forge Pizza

I did not find Iron Forge through a review or a list. I found it because I was paying for something in a shop downtown and the woman behind the counter was eating a loaded baked potato pizza for her lunch, and I stood there openly staring at it like it owed me money. I asked where she got it. That question changed my life in a small but real way.

I have had pizza in New York. I have had pizza in Italy. Iron Forge is still the best I have ever eaten, and I do not say that lightly. They have since expanded to other towns, but I still make the trip to Merrickville for it, partly out of loyalty and partly because that is simply where this pizza belongs.

The loaded baked potato pizza that started all of this does not always appear on the menu, but here is what the regulars know: ask anyway. They will make it for you.

One more thing worth knowing: their gluten-free crust is genuinely good, not the sad, cardboard-adjacent version so many places offer as an afterthought. If gluten is something you or someone in your group avoids, you do not have to sit this one out.

The Goose and Gridiron

The pub you want. The patio is fantastic for lunch or dinner, the atmosphere is exactly right for a long afternoon in a small town, and they run open mic nights and live music events throughout the season. The food covers the range from comfort to properly good, with gluten-free and vegetarian options that are not the sad-afterthought version found everywhere else. The patio alone justifies a visit.

The Merrickville Cheese Shop

Artisan cheese, charcuterie, grazing boxes, gift baskets, and those picnic canal boxes I mentioned earlier. Order one, take it to the grass near the locks, eat it in the sunshine. That is an ideal afternoon by any reasonable definition.

Downtowne Ice Cream

The exterior looks like a 1950s ice cream shop and the interior delivers completely. Gelato, ice cream, more flavours than you need. Go after the pizza. Go after the locks. Just go, there’s never a bad time for ice cream.

The Village Bean Coffee House

Good coffee before you do anything else. A warm, sensible starting point for a Merrickville day.

Where to Stay in Merrickville, Ontario

The Baldachin Inn

The Baldachin is the accommodation in Merrickville, a proper inn in a historic building with a European pub feel that is genuinely the right place to base yourself if you are exploring the region overnight. The name comes from the ornate canopy over the original bar, which tells you something about the character of the place. If you are doing a regional loop through Merrickville, Perth, and Smiths Falls, the Baldachin puts you in the centre of it and sends you to bed in exactly the right state of mind.

Pair Merrickville With a Nearby Town

One of the quiet advantages of this part of Eastern Ontario is that the small towns are close enough to make a genuine regional trip out of them. Merrickville to Perth is about 30 minutes. Smiths Falls is even closer, and Westport is under an hour if you want to stretch the loop further into the Rideau Lakes. Any combination of these makes for a very satisfying weekend.

A Merrickville-Perth loop is especially good. Perth gives you the Tay River, Stewart Park, the Mammoth Cheese, and excellent antique shops. Merrickville gives you the canal locks, the Wick Witch, Iron Forge pizza, and Nellie’s Room. Two nights in the region and you will have covered it well.

If you have a third day, Westport rounds it out nicely, quieter, right on the water, and a natural stop if you are already following the canal north from Smiths Falls.

Merrickville for Le Boat Travellers

If you are doing the Rideau Canal by houseboat with Le Boat, which departs from Smiths Falls about 20 minutes from Merrickville by car (or a leisurely six hours by water, locks included), Merrickville is one of the natural and most rewarding stops on the northern route toward Ottawa. You moor at the Merrickville Lockstation, walk across to St. Lawrence Street, and you are in the middle of the whole thing within minutes.

The three locks here are among the most beautiful on the entire 202-kilometre canal. Watching a boat work through them while you stand on the grass with something from the Cheese Shop is the specific kind of afternoon that makes you remember why you went anywhere at all.

I have a full guide to Le Boat and the Rideau Canal if you are considering making this your next trip.

Ontario Travel

Houseboating the Rideau Canal with Le Boat

The Rideau Canal passes right through Merrickville and Le Boat’s home base is in nearby Smiths Falls. My full guide to houseboating the Rideau Canal covers everything you need to know before you book.

FAQs: Things to Do in Merrickville, Ontario