McLean Mill National Historic Site·9 hr 49 min by bus · 145 km
✓ Fits your group
Cost
$5 a child
$80 for 16 children
A $50 tour guide fee applies on top of the per person rates. GST and a Heritage Fee are applicable on all tours. Children under the age of 5 get in free, and youth 13 to 18 and students pay $12.
Fieldy handles all communication and booking for you.
What it actually looks like
Photos from McLean Mill National Historic Site's website
Our note
It is about ninety minutes on foot around an outdoor working site, which is long for under-fives, and the tour can be tailored, so say who is coming when you email. The published rates start at age 6, so ask what a group of preschoolers actually pays. Nothing on the site says how many children can come at once or whether there is anywhere indoors to eat.
What the children do
A historic interpreter leads the group through the site to cover the history of the mill and camp life. Tours run about an hour and a half and can be tailored to the group. Groups can be accommodated most days with at least seven days notice, arranged by email. The rate is a $50 tour guide fee plus a charge per person, and GST and a Heritage Fee are added to all tours. Private tours are booking for the 2026 season.
Walk the site behind a guide, from the camp life buildings and the blacksmith shop and bunkhouse down across the dam to the mill pond and the steam-driven sawmill, going into the heritage buildings that are set up to explore. Inside the mill, stairs lead up to a viewing gallery that looks down on the saws, with an elevator for anyone who cannot climb them.
Good to know
There are public washrooms in the rebuilt McLean house and an elevator inside the mill, and the visit is otherwise outdoors across a large historic site. Indoor lunch space, rain backup, bus parking and any limit on group size are not stated, so it is worth a call before you book.
Sources disagree. Their pages give two different phone numbers for tour enquiries. One is 250-723-1376, the other is 250-724-6535 and is the one their home page gives for the off season. If one does not get answered, try the other, and email is the route they ask for anyway.
Washrooms
Except for the R.B. McLean house, that has been rebuilt as a modern facility and contains public washrooms, the other buildings have been partially restored. Access to indoor washrooms (during open hours, no showers). While the site is closed for the season the washrooms are closed.
Lunch space
Needs confirmation
Rain backup
Needs confirmation
Strollers
Needs confirmation
Wheelchair access
Back on the main path, stairs lead up to a viewing gallery running along the far side of the mill that allows safe viewing of the various processes even when the mill is operating. There is an elevator for those unable to climb the stairs.
Bus parking
Needs confirmation
Nearby park
Needs confirmation
Restrictions
Please obey all site signage for your safety.. Bring your furry friends (please keep them on leash on the site as there is a dog on the premises) and please pick up after your pets (that includes horses, too).. Please keep a SLOW respectful speed when passing through the site to ensure the safety of your fellow visitors.
