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 small place on the highway now, but one with a better backstory than towns ten times its size — and worth slowing down for.
The man behind the boom was Billa Flint, a Belleville merchant and later a senator, who bought the water power on the Skootamatta here in the 1850s and built the mills. He did the same thing upstream on the same river, and that village still carries his name: Flinton, 23 km north on Flinton Road — which leaves the 7 just east of the Hwy 37 turn and, fittingly, cuts through actinolite-bearing rock on the way.
Tweed & Company Theatre's two-hander murder-mystery musical — two performers, thirteen roles, one piano — runs Aug 28 to Sept 6 in the converted marble church on Bridgewater Road.
Kevin Hornsby performs the John Prine songbook in the converted marble church on Bridgewater Road — a night of storytelling through song from Tweed & Company Theatre.
A five-piece Deep Purple tribute plays two sets of classics in the converted marble church — pitched as a trip back to the band's legendary 1972 Osaka show.
Solo bassist Kris Tischbein and singer-songwriter Andy Forgie trade three intimate sets in the marble church, closing the night together — proceeds go to the venue's Grow With Us capital campaign.
Tweed & Company Theatre's holiday pantomime — musical numbers, outrageous costumes, and boo-the-villain audience participation in the British tradition — runs Nov 27 to Dec 5 in the converted marble church on Bridgewater Road.
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.
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 · Map
Professional summer theatre at the Marble Arts Centre, right at the Hwy 7 and Hwy 37 junction — musicals, concerts, and comedy, plus their outdoor stage. The 2026 season runs from spring through fall, headlined by Fiddler on the Roof in late summer.
Marble Arts Centre, 13 Bridgewater Road, Actinolite · Checked Jul 2026 · Municipality of Tweed business directory · Map