Visiting Amherst Island? A local guide from The Back Kitchen.
We’re the only restaurant on Amherst Island — a quiet, ~450-person island in eastern Lake Ontario, just off Millhaven, Ontario. Folks who come over on the ferry keep asking us what to do while they’re here, so here’s our short list. Bring a bike, bring a thermos, give yourself the day.
Plan your visit
We’re around the corner from the Amherst Island ferry dock — a one-minute walk up the road in the village of Stella. Here’s what you need to know before you come over.
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Find us
5660 Front Road,Stella, ON
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What we’re serving →The island in a nutshell
Amherst Island sits in eastern Lake Ontario, between the mainland at Millhaven and the open lake. It’s about 20 km long, 7 km across at its widest, and 66 km² in total — roughly the size of Manhattan, with about a thousandth of the people. Year-round population is around 450; in summer that can double or triple as cottagers and visitors come over.
The village of Stella, on the north shore, is where the ferry lands and where most of what you’ll want to find is clustered — the Amherst Island General Store, the Neilson Store Museum, the post office, and us. Past Stella, the island opens out into rolling meadow and pasture, sheep farms, dry stone walls, and quiet shoreline. It’s part of Loyalist Township in Lennox and Addington County, with a Loyalist heritage going back to the 1780s. The historical French name was Isle Tonti, after explorer Henri de Tonti.
Things to do on Amherst Island
Owl Woods & birdwatching
Owl Woods is the reason most birders make the trip. It’s a small patch of mixed forest off Marshall 40-Foot Road that, in winter, becomes one of the best places in eastern Ontario to spot owls — saw-whet and long-eared inside the woods, with short-eared, snowy, and the occasional barred or boreal owl across the surrounding fields. The land is privately owned and open to respectful visitors at their own risk: stay on the trails, keep your voice down, don’t flush the birds, and leave the dog at home. The Kingston Field Naturalists also close the woods for a stretch of deer hunting season each year (typically late November into early December), so check before you go.
Beyond Owl Woods, the Sand Beach Wetlands at the southwest end are excellent for migratory species, and the 100-hectare Martin Edwards Reserve at the southeast point is the best spot in the Kingston region for rarities — Wilson’s phalarope nests there, and snowy owls and short-eared owls are regular. Note: the reserve is owned by the Kingston Field Naturalists and you need to be a member, or be with one, to walk the trail. Membership is cheap and easy to set up online before you come over.
Cycling
Amherst Island is one of the nicest places to cycle in eastern Ontario, full stop. The roads are quiet, the loops are gentle, and the views — lake on one side, sheep on the other — are hard to beat. Two important notes: most of the roads outside Stella are gravel, so a hybrid or gravel bike is happier than a road bike, and there are no bike-lane shoulders. Bring your own bike across on the ferry (bicycles travel cheap and pedestrians cross free), or rent one in season from Amherst Island Bicycle Rental, a mom-and-pop shop right at the corner of Front Road and Stella 40 Foot Road, a couple of minutes’ walk from the ferry dock.
Beaches, kayaking & the Sand Beach Wetlands
The shoreline runs from pebbly beach to limestone bluff and back again. The Sand Beach Wetlands Conservation Area at the southwest end of the island is the marquee spot — a long stretch of beach, a boardwalk over the marsh, parking, seasonal washrooms, and good birding. The wetland is provincially significant and part of a Globally Significant Important Bird Area, so stay on the trails through the dunes. There’s a public boat launch at Sand Beach for the open lake, and another at the Stella ferry wharf if you want to paddle the calmer North Channel side. Back Beach and Stella Bay Park give you smaller, quieter alternatives.
Topsy Farms & the local farms
Topsy Farms is the island’s best-known sheep farm and one of the friendlier places to drop in. The Wool Shed sells blankets, yarn, and sheepskins made from their own flock, and depending on the season you can meet lambs or say hello to the farm dogs. Several other farms around the island sell produce, eggs, and baked goods at the gate — watch for honour-system stands as you cycle.
Neilson Store Museum & the Weasel & Easel
A short walk from the ferry, the Neilson Store Museum and Cultural Centre is set in a restored 19th-century general store and houses the island’s history collection — Loyalist settlement, fishing and farming, and the shipwrecks just offshore. Inside the same building, the Weasel & Easel sells locally made art and craft from island artists. Worth an hour either before or after lunch.
Music, markets & the Pavilion
For a small island, there’s a lot going on. The Waterside Summer Series brings classical performers to the beautiful acoustics of St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church through the summer. The Amherst Island Agricultural Society runs the Saturday Market at their new Pavilion on the fairgrounds on Saturday mornings from spring through fall — island farmers, bakers, preserves, eggs, and produce. The Pavilion also hosts a big concert on the August long weekend, which is worth planning a trip around.
The dry stone walls — and the walling competition
If you’ve been searching for the Amherst Island “walling competition,” you’re looking for something genuinely unusual. The island has one of the largest concentrations of historic dry stone walls in North America — mile upon mile of them, threading between the pastures and along the back roads, built largely by Irish immigrants in the 1800s. They were a practical answer to fields full of glacial limestone: clear the stones, stack them in lines, you have fences and tilled fields in one go.
More than 150 years on, the tradition is alive. Dry Stone Canada hosts annual walling workshops and competitions on the island — recent ones based at The Lodge — where wallers from across Canada and the United States build sections of wall against the clock, judged on craftsmanship by master wallers. It’s a quiet, slow spectator sport — nobody’s selling foam fingers — but if you’ve never watched a wall go up stone by stone, it’s mesmerising. If you’re on the island for a walling event, there’s a good chance we’re feeding the wallers.
Even outside event days, the walls are everywhere — cycle the back roads and you’ll see them. Keep an eye on our event calendar for upcoming walling events.
Getting here: the ferry from Millhaven
There’s one way onto Amherst Island and that’s the ferry from Millhaven, Ontario — about a 20-minute drive west of Kingston on Highway 33 (the Loyalist Parkway), or roughly two hours from Ottawa and two and a half from Toronto. The crossing is about 20 minutes across the North Channel, and the ferry runs hourly each direction, year-round — leaving Stella on the hour and Millhaven on the half-hour. It carries cars, bikes, and foot passengers (pedestrians cross free); check the current ferry schedule before you head out, especially if you’re aiming for a specific sailing back.
The newer ferry is the Amherst Islander II, a hybrid electric-diesel boat that holds about 42 cars; the older Frontenac II still fills in regularly. Parking on the Millhaven side is straightforward, though it’s a small lot. One practical tip before you cross: there are no gas stations on the island, so fuel up in Bath or Kingston on the way. Most places here (us included) take cards and tap. When you land in Stella, we’re right around the corner — a one-minute walk from the dock.
Where to stay
Most visitors come for the day, but if you want to stay over, The Lodge on Amherst Island is the best-known overnight option, with a handful of other places like Foot Flats Waterfront Cottage and Farm, Poplar Dell Farm B&B, and a yurt at Topsy Farms, plus a healthy mix of AirBnB rentals scattered around the island. Camping isn’t allowed on public land or in the parks, so book ahead — rentals fill up in summer. The AICA accommodation directory has a fuller list.
Local businesses & community partners
We work with a network of island businesses, farms, and community organizations — the folks who keep this place going. If you’d like to support the local economy while you’re here, our community partners page is a good place to start.
Events on the island
We keep the community calendar for Amherst Island — music nights, walling events, summer concerts, holiday dinners, the Wooly Bully Races (the island’s annual 5K/10K in August), and everything in between. See what’s coming up →
On the island today?
Come find us in Stella, just around the corner from the ferry. Fresh food, a warm room, friendly faces.
See the menu →Visiting Amherst Island — quick answers
Some of the island background here draws on info from the Amherst Island Community Alliance — visit amherstislandca.com for the full directory, calendar, and ferry schedule.