The Doris McCarthy Trail

Location: Between Kingston Rd. and the lake, Scarborough
Date photo taken: 9 September 2013

The Doris McCarthy Trail is one of those magical places in Toronto that let you forget for a moment that you’re in the big city. It’s green, it runs beside a lovely little stream, and it leads you to the shores of the lake. Perfect for a brief summer escape.

Doris McCarthy was a Canadian artist who lived on the Scarborough Bluffs. In 1986 she donated a piece of land on the east side of her property to the Toronto and Region Conservation Authority. It is through this land that the trail now runs. Her home, Fool’s Paradise, was donated over a decade later to the Ontario Heritage Trust and is now run as an artist-in-residence centre.

The entrance to the trail is just south of Kingston road off Bellehaven Crescent in the Cliffcrest part of Scarborough. From here it runs down through Gates Gully to the lake where it joins the waterfront trail. It’s a bit steep in places but generally easy to manage.