Public Walk – It’s St. Patrick’s Day!

Date: Mar 17, 2026 at 10:00
Meeting Location: Southeast corner at Queen and Parliament streets

Join us on Tuesday, March 17th at 10:00 am for a 2.5-hour, 4 km circular heritage walk.

Leader: Linda McCaffrey

Location: Corktown

Description: Join the migrants from the Island Of Saints and Sinners. From 1815 they settled the backwoods of Upper Canada as their regiments were disbanded at the conclusion of the Napoleonic wars; from 1845 they sought refuge in Toronto from the mass starvation of the Great Famine. View St Paul’s Basilica and the location of mass graves at the first Irish burial ground in Toronto. We will trace the course of Sumach Creek which discharged into the Don River in what is now Corktown Common.

Details: A 2.5-hour, 4 km circular heritage walk on mostly paved surfaces with some gentle slopes. Some stairs.

Meeting Spot: Southeast corner at Queen and Parliament streets

Getting There: Line 2 and Parliament Street Bus or 501 Queen Streetcar from Line 1

Accessibility: No charging stations for mobility devices

Washrooms: Not available

What to Bring: Dress for the weather

Other Information: There is no longer any visual evidence of the burial ground. But unmarked mass graves remain.

This walk is only one of more than 140 that TFN will host this year alone! TFN members enjoy a complete listing of walks in our newsletter. Not a member? Learn more about the benefits of membership now!

Please tag any photos you take on this walk with #TFNWalk so that we can all live vicariously through your lens.

Toronto Field Naturalists wishes to acknowledge this Land through which we walk. For thousands of years, the Land has been shared by the Wendat, the Haudenosaunee, and the Anishinaabe. Toronto is situated on the Land within the Toronto Purchase, Treaty 13, the traditional and treaty Lands of the Mississaugas of the Credit First Nation. This territory is also part of the Dish with One Spoon Wampum, a covenant agreement between Anishinaabeg, Haudenosaunee, Wendat peoples and allied nations to peaceably share the land and all its resources. Today, the Land is home to peoples of numerous nations. We are all grateful to have the opportunity to continue to care for and share the beauty of this Land.