Southampton

People call it Ontario's Hamptons: a well-kept lakeside town with a long summer tradition, handsome old houses and a main street worth walking. What the nickname misses is how easy it is to live here. There's no pretense to keep up with: just the lake, the trails, and neighbours you'll run into on High Street.

The town sits on Lake Huron at the mouth of the Saugeen River, on Highway 21 between Port Elgin and Sauble Beach. It's part of the Town of Saugeen Shores.

People gathered on the shore at dusk to watch the sun set over Lake Huron

The lake

By the water

Southampton faces west across Lake Huron, and the sunset is the town's evening ritual. On a summer night the beach fills up with people who've come to watch it.

South Street Beach
A family beach. Children play in the water all afternoon, and everyone stays for the sunset.
The boardwalk and Southampton Beach
A long stretch of sand along the boardwalk, looking out to Chantry Island.
Chantry Island lighthouse
A lighthouse from the 1850s, about a kilometre offshore. In summer, booked tours take you out by boat so you can climb the 106 steps to the top.
The Saugeen River
Moor your boat at the marina. Canoe or boat up the river from where it meets the lake.

The beach from the air: a long curve of sand along Lake Huron, the breakwall and its range light at the river mouth, and homes in the trees behind

Sailboats at their moorings in the harbour, with the white range light on the pier

A large Canadian flag flying from a tall flagpole by the beach, with Lake Huron behind it

A sandy path between wooden rails over the dunes, leading down to the beach

The white range light with its red lantern at the end of the breakwall, people fishing from the rocks below it

A couple walking barefoot along the water's edge, carrying their sandals

High Street

Around town

High Street is the kind of main street that so many small towns have lost: independent shops and restaurants, arts and culture, and all the other services you need.

Southampton hospital
Feel secure knowing you're minutes away from a 24-hour emergency department, in-patient care, surgery, and outpatient services.
Southampton Arts Centre
A community gallery in the old Town Hall on High Street, and an art school in the old Mechanics Institute on Albert Street. Gallery admission is free.
Bruce County Playhouse
A professional theatre company stages multiple productions every summer season.
Bruce County Museum & Cultural Centre
Artistic and cultural exhibitions, rotating collections, artist talks, film screenings, and other programmes.

The red-brick clock tower of the old Town Hall on High Street, two people walking past its front steps

The window of the Southampton Olive Oil Company on High Street

The entrance and steps of the Bruce County Museum & Cultural Centre

The Southampton Art School, a yellow-brick building with red doors on Albert Street, the old Town Hall's clock tower beyond

People on the patio of the Walker House on High Street, under its umbrellas, a yellow-brick building with est. 1915 on its sign

Four seasons

Through the year

A trail footbridge through woods in autumn colour

Players on the courts at the Southampton Tennis Club

The pace is slower here, and that's the point: it leaves time to get outside, and to get to know the people you meet there.

The Rail Trail
The old rail line through town, now a path for walking and cycling, with a connection right across Railway Street from Southampton Landing.
Woodland trails
Wooded trails for walking, running and mountain biking, including Biener's Bush.
Southampton Golf & Country Club
An 18-hole, par-72 course that has been part of the town since 1963.
Saugeen Golf Club
Twenty-seven holes in three nines, between Southampton and Port Elgin. The first nine opened in 1925.
Southampton Tennis Club
A tennis hub with 15 courts in 3 locations, a 20-minute walk or 5-minute bike ride away. Lessons, competitions and programmes all summer. Thanks to this non-profit club, formed in 1956, Southampton is known as Ontario's "tennis town".
The Coliseum
Downtown's winter hub for hockey and public skating.
Southampton Curling Club
Curling through the winter, at the Coliseum.

Getting here

Southampton is about two hours to Kitchener–Waterloo, Guelph, and London, and as little as two and a half hours to Toronto. Port Elgin is ten minutes south, and Owen Sound about forty minutes east.

Southampton Landing is on the east side of Highway 21 (Railway Street) at the south end of town. It's a five-minute bike ride or a twenty-minute walk to the beach and High Street.

Open in Google Maps

Map of Southampton on the east shore of Lake Huron, with Southampton Landing at the south end of town, on the east side of Highway 21 (Railway Street), and the Saugeen Rail Trail running along its west side. Marked: High Street, the harbour, South Street Beach and Chantry Island. Inset: Southampton's place in southwestern Ontario, with Owen Sound and Kitchener–Waterloo; London and Toronto are labelled on the map.

Southampton Landing from above: the entrance, the pond and the first finished streets

The neighbourhood

Southampton Landing is built in the style of the town's older streets: porches out front, garages set back, and a wooded creek with trails running through it.

See the neighbourhood