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New England Antiquities Research Association

Bayers Lake mystery wall baffles archeology buffs

by Kim Moar, The Daily News, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

(Update! Another article on this subject appeared in the May 5, 2005 issue of the Burnside News. It is available as a PDF file at this link: Burnside News Article)

March 21, 2005

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An article by Kim Moar has been printed on p. 3 of the Monday, March 21, 2005 edition of the The Daily News (Halifax, NS, Canada) titled Bayers Lake mystery wall baffles archeology buffs. It reports on efforts to form a non-profit group to help preserve this site, and others of archeological import in this Province. Quoting from the article:

One such site is a so-called “mystery wall” discovered several years ago during an expansion of the Bayers Lake Business Park. Extending more than 200 metres and measuring as high as two metres, the stone wall is baffling many historians.

“Nobody is quite certain what it is … We can’t find any records,” [Jeff] Turner said [spokesman for the new Archeological Land Trust of Nova Scotia].

While no one knows for sure when it was built, archeological experts believe it was likely constructed between 1749, when Halifax [was] founded, and the early 1800s. The site also includes the footprint of a large, five-sided building, with compartments and an unusual set of stone steps seemingly leading nowhere.

While some have suggested it’s a military ruin, there’s no record of that, either.

“The military history of Halifax is really well documented, and this thing does not show up,” Turner said.

David Christianson, a curator of archeology with the Nova Scotia Museum, said yesterday while many people believe the wall and structures are the work of soldiers, others have more romanticized ideas about who built it.

Some believe it was built for Prince Henry Sinclair in 1398 during a legendary search for the Holy Grail. Other[s] say it is evidence of an advanced, pre-Columbian civilization.

Christianson said while none of the artifacts found at the site so far would suggest that early a beginning, there’s been very little archeological work done at the site to prove — or disprove — any possibility.

This site is also the continuing focus of much of my personal research. It is actually only one part of a much larger context of anomalous stonework and earthwork in the vicinity. A careful study of early French documents going all the way back to 1595 makes it quite unlikely to have been of French colonial origin either. I’ve attached a few of my own photos as illustrations of the Bayers Lake “Mystery” Walls. (TJD)

Photo 1 Photo 2 Photo 3 Photo 4 Photo 5

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