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Highway 7 · KM 165 from Ottawa
Actinolite
The hamlet named after a mineral, where Highway 37 meets the 7.
↳ Tweed · 10 min south on Hwy 37
Why stop
Actinolite is the corridor’s junction with Highway 37 — the turn for Tweed — and one of the very few places anywhere named after a mineral. Actinolite (the mineral) was quarried here in the 1880s, and the marble and greenstone bluffs along the river still show why geologists slow down through this stretch.
The hamlet has lived three lives under three names: Troy, then Bridgewater — a genuine boomtown with mills and quarries until a fire levelled it in 1889 — and finally Actinolite, the quieter version that grew back. It’s a blink on the highway now, but a blink with a better backstory than towns ten times its size.
Old-school roadside picnic stop at the Hwy 7/37 junction — tables, accessible facilities, and a path along the Skootamatta, one of the cleanest rivers in Ontario. A concrete dam backs the river into a gorge edged with mixed forest, with redwing blackbirds working the reeds — worth the walk for the scenery alone. Price Conservation Area, its quieter south-bank counterpart, sits just across the road.
North side of Hwy 7 at Hwy 37 · Checked Jul 2026 · public sources
Price Conservation Area
The Skootamatta's south-bank companion to the picnic area across the road — 22 quiet acres of mixed forest and marsh, free parking, washrooms, and picnic tables, and a regular canoe take-out for paddlers running the river.