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Public Lecture: The Abbot of Kingsmere: Mackenzie King and his Ruins

Wednesday, January 22nd, 2025 at 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm

  • Virtual event
  • Cost: Free

Join Professor Peter Coffman for a Heritage Ottawa virtual lecture on Gatineau Park’s mysterious ruins of a place that never was:

The architectural ruins that William Lyon Mackenzie King built at his Kingsmere estate defy simple explanation. Today, they are used for everything from picnics to ghost tours to wedding photos. But for King himself, they were hallowed ground. He read poetry among them, buried his beloved dogs there, and even considered having himself buried there. The ruins’ existence seems like an act of extreme eccentricity (to put it politely).

But ruins have their own inner logic and history – not just as individual monuments, but as an idea that has haunted and sparked the imagination for centuries. This presentation will explore the long imaginative tradition in which Mackenzie King’s ruins are situated, how that tradition came to Canada, and the seminal moments when King’s life intersected with it.