Cottages For Sale on Fairy Lake

Owning a cottage on Fairy Lake

Fairy Lake is the lake Huntsville grew up around. The town's river channel runs into its western end, so owning here means groceries, the hospital and a restaurant patio are minutes away by car or even by boat. That convenience is the trade-off buyers weigh: the province describes the shoreline as intensely developed, with urban, commercial and cottage frontage all sharing the water.

It is a deep lake for its size. The Ministry of Natural Resources measured about 69 m at its deepest and an average of about 22 m, which keeps the main basin cool well into summer. The water has a natural tea colour from a very large watershed of more than 1,200 square kilometres, so expect brown-tinted clarity of about three metres rather than the glassy blue of smaller headwater lakes.

The real draw for many owners is position. Fairy Lake sits in the middle of the Huntsville chain. Head east through the canal and you are on Peninsula Lake. Go south through the Brunel Locks and you reach Mary Lake. Go west through town and you are into Lake Vernon. Few cottage lakes give you that much water from one dock.

• Four lake chain
• Canal to Peninsula Lake
• Close to town

History of Fairy Lake

Huntsville's link to the south came by water. Timber locks were built at Brunel on the river between Fairy Lake and Mary Lake in the mid 1870s, with an eight foot lift. The steamer Northern was the first boat through in 1877, and that year a navigable route from Port Sydney to Huntsville opened, which gave the young town a reliable way to move people and freight.

A canal cut to Peninsula Lake in the late 1880s turned Fairy Lake into the gateway for the lower lakes steamer run, which left Huntsville, crossed Fairy Lake and carried on to Peninsula Lake and the Portage railway to Lake of Bays. Steamboats used the Brunel Locks for about 75 years. The locks were rebuilt several times, refaced in concrete in 1947, and reopened in 1989 to reconnect Mary Lake with Fairy, Vernon and Peninsula lakes for pleasure boats.

A boating hub between three lakes

From Fairy Lake you can reach Peninsula Lake through the canal on the east side, Mary Lake through the Brunel Locks to the south, and Lake Vernon by running up the river through downtown Huntsville. The Brunel lock has an eight foot lift and sits beside Goodwin Park on Brunel Road, a pleasant spot to watch boats go through.

The river through town and the canals are narrow, so slow speeds and patience are part of the routine. Expect more traffic on summer weekends, when boaters from all four lakes use Fairy Lake as the crossroads.

Lake trout, bass and a changing fishery

Fairy Lake still has lake trout, and the province manages it for natural reproduction rather than stocking. Trout stocking ended after 2008 so biologists could see whether the native fish could recover on their own. Lake whitefish and cisco have disappeared from the lake, which the ministry links largely to introduced rainbow smelt.

In the shallows, smallmouth bass and northern pike now dominate, and walleye have started to appear, likely moving down from Lake Vernon. For most cottage anglers that means good bass fishing off docks and points, with trout a deeper, more specialised pursuit.

Water quality and the tea-coloured water

The brown tint is natural. It comes from dissolved organic matter washing in from the large watershed, not from pollution. It does limit how far light reaches, and the ministry notes the lake has been shaped by heavy shoreline development, water level control and introduced species.

Spiny water flea, an invasive zooplankton, has been recorded here since 1990. Clean, drain and dry your boat when moving between lakes, especially since this lake is a busy pass-through for boats from the rest of the chain.

Living next to Huntsville

No other lake in this guide puts you as close to town services. Huntsville District Memorial Hospital, full grocery stores and Highway 11 are a short drive from most of the shoreline, and Highway 60 heads east from town toward Algonquin Park. For year-round owners and families with school-age children, that matters more than an extra half hour of wilderness.

The flip side is that some frontage looks across to town buildings, roads or commercial property. Visit at night and on a Saturday before you buy, so you know what you will hear and see from the dock.