The Lime Kiln Trail- A 4 km Hike in Ottawa

This hike is part of the Adventure Report Ottawa Hiking Challenge. If you hike this trail, you’re officially working on the Starter Edition!

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The Lime Kiln Trail (also called trail 25 on NCC maps) has a lot to see. And, with it being so close to town, it’s a great trail for a low key morning or afternoon out.

I must admit, there have been times that I’ve been guilty of hiking out to the old lime kiln on this trail, and then turning around and heading back. Recently though, I decided to hike out past the old kiln and see what this trail had to offer. Did you know there was a huge fire in the swamp out there in 2012?? Me neither, until I hiked to the swamp on a chilly day at the end of November last year.

There are a lot of trails in the greenbelt that are super wide and well groomed, making it almost impossible to not know what direction you’re headed in. The trails out past the lime kiln were a little more natural (closer to herd paths in some spots), which I absolutely loved!

Dogs are allowed on this trail until the winter season (December 1^st). After that, it becomes available for cross country skiing.

Getting There

Parking for the Lime Kiln Trail is just off of Moodie Drive. You can use these coordinates to get to the parking lot, which is P10: 45.287235, -75.813287.

P10 is a smaller parking lot, with space for about thirty cars. There is no outhouse at the trailhead, but there’s a garbage can.

The trail starts at the back of the parking lot. You can’t miss it.

The Route

The Lime Kiln Trail is an easy walk through the forest, and it didn’t take me long to hike the 0.7 kilometres out to the ruins. The trail the entire way there is wide, well groomed, and very easy to follow. If you’re new to hiking, or have little ones with you, a walk out to the ruins and back would make for a great 1.4k out and back hike.

The ruins themselves are pretty neat to look at. The first was to my right, and the second, bigger structure was just past that. You can check out the second structure from down below and then walk up to the top of it for a different view.

While I was doing that, I saw someone fly by on a mountain bike, so it seems like this area would be fun for that too.

Swamp Fire?

I hiked past the ruins, and began to see some trees that had obviously been burnt at some point in time. After hiking for only 1.1 kilometres, I came across some signs explaining what had happened. Apparently, the swamp had caught on fire in 2012! I would have guessed that it would be very hard for a swamp to catch on fire, so it was kind of interesting to read about what had happened.

I stayed on the path that I had been on to reach the swamp, in order to take the loop clockwise. This trail follows along the boundary for Tomlinson’s Quarry. When I was on this section of the trail I could hear a lot of industrial noise. That isn’t really what I’m looking for when I’m out in nature, but what can you do? The trail here was really wide. You could easily walk beside two or three people.

After hiking for 1.7 kilometres, I was able to see that the trail was going to connect to Old Richmond Road if I carried on straight. I turned to my right onto a more natural looking path, and followed it through the forest. Where I turned right was “point B” on NCC’s trail map.

When I had been hiking for just over 2 kilometres, I reached “point C,” and stayed straight in order to begin heading back to the trailhead. Just after that, at 2.3 kilometres, I should have wandered to my left to stick with the trail. Somehow, it looked to me like the trail headed to my right and I crossed back across a section of the swamp and rejoined the trail right before the signs about the fire were. By my guess, I probably cheated myself out of a kilometre of hiking (had I stayed on the trail), so this might ACTUALLY be a 5k hike.

Getting Home

At the signs for the fire, I turned to my left to head back to the trailhead. All in, my creative little loop was 4 kilometres. I was able to cover that distance in just under an hour.

I hope this trip report has enough info to get you there too. Let me know in the comments, or share and tag a friend to start planning your next adventure!

Map and Elevation Gain

Gear I Brought

• Hiking Boots
• Base Layers
• Fleece Sweater
• Light Jacket
• Mittens
• Buff Merino Wool Headband
• Small Backpack
• Nalgene 32-Ounce Bottle
• Cell Phone