SOCIAL MEDIA

We love to share the beauty of Fancy Free Island in photos and videos. You can click here to access our new Instagram account! If you have photos or videos about Fancy Free Island please feel free to share your experience using the #FancyFreeIsland hashtag!

HIGH SPEED INTERNET

We have increased our internet plan to provide unlimited data during July and August.

Our unlimited internet plan means that our guests can freely stream music and videos. They now have the best of both worlds- the serenity and peace of a private island set in the spectacular semi-wilderness of Big Rideau Lake, combined with the advantages of access to the latest in technology when needed. 

NEW POLLINATOR GARDENS

We are renovating Fancy Free’s gardens to increase the diversity of native plants on the island. For many decades Fancy Free Island was known for the beautiful peony gardens that ringed it, tended by Aunt Margaret Washburn, who owned it for many years.

Postcards in the mid 20th century show the island with its peony gardens in full bloom, the height of the European-oriented cottage gardening standards of the time.

In keeping with our commitment to the biodiversity of the Frontenac Arch Biosphere, we are replanting the gardens with native species attractive to pollinators. We’ve added several new species of milkweed, the plant host of the endangered Monarch Butterfly. Other new native plants include Blazing Star and Veronica. 

We are also growing native shrubs such as Red-Osier Dogwood around the perimeter of the island. They provide foliage and forage for birds in the ecologically important littoral zone between the water and the land. Overhanging shrubs also provide important shade for fish habitat. 

CATCH OF THE YEAR!

One of our 2023 guests, Allan Doyle, caught a large pike off the front dock this summer. He released it, but took the photo below first. 

In the true fishing tradition, Allan told us that the one that got away was even bigger.