McNabs Island

Laying off the coast of Nova Scotia, McNabs Island is a wonderland of abandoned structures and modern ruins ranging from military installations to private homes to a soda factory. 

McNabs Island in Halifax harbor was settled by Peter McNab in the 1780s after the large island had been used by fishermen. Until 1934, McNab and his family, and their descendants, occupied the island, after which no large settlements were established on the island.

In fact McNabs Island has lain mostly abandoned since World War II and is now mainly an impressive collection of abandoned structures of all sorts. Packed into the island's 980 acres are the following; three abandoned military forts, a cholera quarantine epidemic potters field, ruins of old family homes from the island's few inhabitants, a family burial plot, a former soda pop factory that ran bootleg booze during prohibition, a shipwreck cove, a beach where English redcoats hung navy deserters during the Napoleonic Wars, a forgotten lighthouse, a former Edwardian fairground, and the remnants of a cultivated Victorian botanical garden.

Guided tours occur every summer, courtesy of the Friends of McNabs Island Society.