Carleton Place, Ontario: Your ultimate day trip guide

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When it comes to Lanark County towns, Carleton Place is like the shy high school girl who hangs around in the background while her flashier friends get all the attention. Day trippers flock to nearby Perth and Almonte for river views, heritage stone buildings, cute shops and great food, often driving right through Carleton Place along the way. True, CP doesn’t have quite as many stone buildings (although it does have a gorgeous town hall). It doesn’t have quite as many gift shops. It doesn’t attract quite as many Hallmark Christmas movie directors.

What it does do, though, is slowly charm the thoughtful visitor. Just like the stereotypical wallflower, Carleton Place has a lot of heart and a great personality, once you get to know it. And because CP been a little slower than other nearby communities to catch the gentrification wave, it has recently attracted a small wave of entrepreneurs looking for good opportunities.

A group of guys who met while working at Ottawa’s Wellington Gastropub took over a one-time car dealership and opened Stalwart Brewing Company in 2015. The next year, chef Ian Carswell launched his destination restaurant, Black Tartan Kitchen, a few blocks away. The year after that, Rohit Gupta opened Braumeister Brewing Company at the opposite end of downtown. And around the same time, a partnership including Ottawa restaurateur Rod Scribner, as well as Almonte wedding venue owners Janice Mathers and Joel Schramek, bought a Victorian building on CP’s main drag, poured a whack of money into it and created the opulent Grand Hotel.

Today, Carleton Place, Ontario, is a wonderful mix of trendy new places and old favourites. It feels like a real community, not a town designed for tourists.

Have I sold you? If so, hop in the car for a short drive from Ottawa and check out what CP has to offer.

Table of contents

Shopping in Carleton Place

Creative types will likely head straight to the Real Wool Shop (142 Franktown Road) where, naturally enough, you can buy many, many brands of yarn, including Opal, West Yorkshire Spinners, and Briggs & Little. The store sells much more than wool, though, including moccasins, medical sheepskin products, bedding, baby toys, skin creams and casual clothes.

Another draw for crafters is The PickleDish Quilt Shop and Studio (24 Lake Avenue West), housed in a grand old mansion and brimming with quilting fabrics and equipment.

The Queens Crafters and Antiques Market (142 Bridge Street) is pretty much impossible to classify. Sisters Donna Carpenter and Dianna Brydges-Lachapelle run it as a shared space for a wide range of local makers and vendors, so you never know what you might find: vintage vinyl, CBD-infused body lotion, crocheted slippers, antique boxing gloves, folk art, fabric-covered journals, greeting cards, retro Corningware….really, just drop by and see what’s new on the ever-changing shelves.

On August 24, 2023, the Carleton Place Gallery opened its doors downtown (210 Bridge Street). Funded and run by local artists, it will feature pieces by some 20 creators from Carleton Place and nearby.

Restaurants and food shops

Black Tartan Kitchen (132 Bridge Street) is one of my favourite restos in Eastern Ontario. Chef Ian Carswell—whose work has taken him to places as diverse as a Michelin-starred restaurant in Helsinki, Ottawa’s Absinthe Cafe and the National Gallery of Canada—creates inventive bistro specialties with fresh local ingredients. His venison carpaccio, accented with toasted buckwheat and Mighty Micro sprouts, even made a believer out of this game meat hater.

A Carleton Place icon since 1997, the homey Good Food Company (31 Bridge Street) specializes in internationally inspired light fare (frittatas, crepes, soups) and house-made desserts. Like many CP restaurateurs, owner Petra Graber serves up lots of local products, such as java from Fluid Solar Coffee Roasters in Clayton, cage-free eggs from Bekings Poultry Farm in Oxford Station and vodka from Almonte’s Dairy Distillery. Make sure to come early in the day, as it’s open for breakfast, brunch and lunch, but not dinner.

The Smith & Barrel Pub at the Grand Hotel (7 Bridge Street) feels like an historic English pub as redecorated by an urbane Martha Stewart—think patterned wallpaper, dark wood and multiple chandeliers, along with chairs upholstered in brocade and leather. Despite the traditional feel, the menu leans toward modern “gastropub” dishes, such as poke and charcuterie—along with pastas, burgers and steak frites.

Other Carleton Place restaurants to consider include The Boulton House (35 Mill Street), housed in an 1820s mill; Sagar Indian Cuisine (156 Bridge Street), where the service is kind and the butter chicken is delish; and the Waterfront Gastropub (12 Bell Street), which offers a big patio overlooking the Mississippi River, live music, and long hours (breakfast, lunch and dinner seven days a week).

I haven’t had time yet to check out the 7cm-high doughnuts at Holey Confections (21 Bridge Street), but I’ve heard good things.

On the edge of town, cheese lovers can get their fix at The Cheddar Stop shop (10471 Highway 7), which sells many othertypes of cheese besides its namesake. You’ll also find lots of other food treats, including ice cream, fudge, honey, pepperoni and coffee.

Carleton Place can also slake your thirst. If, like me, you like your beers on the slightly sweet side, I can highly recommend Big Papa at the Stalwart Brewing Company (10 High Street). “The Big Papa pale ale has some peach and apricot in it, but it’s not your typical fruit beer—it’s definitely a pale ale first,” Adam Newlands, one of Stalwart’s co-owners, says. Not a fan of sweet? No worries; the brewery makes a wide range of other beers, from a light blonde to a chocolate porter and a double IPA.

The concept for Braumeister Brewing Company (19 Moore Street) was born when co-founder Rohit Gupta moved from Ottawa to Austria to teach high school. Captivated by the warm camaraderie at Austrian beer gardens and eager to replicate the experience back home, he decided Carleton Place was a great place to try the concept.

Festivals and events

Popular events include the Bridge Street Summer Fest (August) and Pumpkinfest (October), both organized by the Downtown Carleton Place BIA (see “If you go”).

More Carleton Place sights and attractions

At several places in Carleton Place—including the Carleton Place Visitor Information Centre (170 Bridge Street) and at the Carleton Place and Beckwith Heritage Museum (267 Edmund Street)—you can learn about hometown hero Captain Arthur Roy Brown, credited with shooting down the Red Baron during the First World War.

Behind the museum, you can meander through the Carleton Place Community Labyrinth, a peaceful spot for meditation and contemplation. It’s open around the clock, free of charge.

Visiting with kids? A great place to let them blow off steam is Riverside Park (175 John Street), where you’ll find a beach on the Mississippi River, boat launches, play structures, picnic tables and a splash pad. Put a canoe or kayak in the water here and you’ll be following in the wake of a long line of paddlers; the nearby Carleton Place Canoe Club (179 John Street) dates back to 1893 and is the oldest continuously operating such club in Canada.

If you’d rather hike beside the river than paddle it, pick up the Rotary Centennial Trail near the McNeely Avenue Bridge for a gentle seven-kilometre ramble along trails and country roads to the village of Appleton.

Seeking further inspiration? Check out 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Carleton Place. (Well, OK, you know a bit about a few of them after reading this post, but several places mentioned briefly in this post are covered in more detail there.)

If you go

Carleton Place is 53 kilometres from Parliament Hill. To drive there, take exit 145 from Highway 417 onto Highway 7 west.

Are cycling or hiking more your speed? Then pick up the Ottawa Carleton Trailway in Stittsville and follow it 23 kilometres to Carleton Place.

The Downtown Carleton Place BIA organizes events throughout the year and is a good source of information on local shops and restaurants.

For more details on visiting Carleton Place, check out the town’s website or drop by the Carleton Place Visitor Information Centre at 170 Bridge Street. You can’t miss it, as it’s located inside a 19th-century log building that was once a general store, was moved to this site in 2007 and is reputedly haunted by a mild-mannered ghost named Ida.

Carleton Place accommodations

If you’d like to stay overnight, there’s the aforementioned and aptly named Grand Hotel. You can use the map below to book it and other accommodations. Disclosure: I’ll receive a small commission if you book a Carleton Place hotel, B&B or other place to stay via the link above or the map below, which will help support this website. (Thanks!)

Looking for more tips for things to see and do in Eastern Ontario, the Outaouais and beyond? Subscribe to my free weekly newsletter and/or buy my guidebook, Ottawa Road Trips: Your 100-km Getaway Guide, from which this post is adapted.

As the owner of Ottawa Road Trips, I acknowledge that I live on, work in and travel through the unceded, unsurrendered territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg Nation. I am grateful to have the opportunity to be present on this land. Ottawa Road Trips supports Water First, a non-profit organization that helps address water challenges in Indigenous communities in Canada through education, training and meaningful collaboration.