Cathcart Tower stands on Cedar Island, a low, rocky speck in Lake Ontario just off Kingston's harbour, and it is one of a ring of stone towers the British built in the 1840s to guard the city. They are called Martello towers, after a design the British had copied from a tower on Corsica, and they were meant to be squat, thick-walled gun platforms that were hard to knock down. Kingston has four, built in a time of tension with the United States over the Oregon boundary. None was ever tested in battle.
The Cathcart Tower is the least accessible of them. Because it sits on its own island, you cannot ride to it, and visiting requires a boat or a kayak, usually in summer, so most people view it from the shore at Fort Henry or from the water. It makes a fine sight from the western shore at sunset, a small round tower against the sky, with the lake spreading behind it. Together with Fort Henry and the other towers, it forms part of the Kingston fortifications, which Parks Canada protects as a national historic site.
If you want to ride toward the view, the best option is the road along the waterfront through the heart of Kingston, which loops past parks, the old city hall and the harbour. It is a flat and easy ride, with a surface that is mostly good, though in summer pedestrians and cyclists crowd the route. Wolfe Island, in the lake, has a free car ferry from the downtown and makes a pleasant outing, with quiet roads and farmland.
The lake is a major sailing destination, and Kingston has hosted Olympic sailing events. Wind off Lake Ontario can be strong and cold, even in summer, and fog sometimes blankets the shore in spring.
Fuel, food and everything else is in the city. Kingston has a great range of places to eat, from simple pubs to good restaurants, and some of the best butter tarts and local ale in Ontario.
Stand on the shore at dusk and look across the water to the tower. Imagine the garrison inside, waiting for an enemy who never came.