Tag: Antigonish

Antigonish ( /ˌæntɨɡəˈnɪʃ/) is a Canadian town in Antigonish County, Nova Scotia. The town is home to St. Francis Xavier University and the oldest continuous highland games in North America.
The name Antigonish is of Mi’kmaq origin. The original definition has been lost as the Mi’kmaq language has undergone many revisions over the last two centuries. The first European settlement took place in 1784 when Colonel Timothy Hierlihy received a large land grant surrounding Antigonish Harbour. Hierlihy and his party founded the Dorchester settlement, named for Sir Guy Carleton, who was Governor General of Canada and subsequently Lord Dorchester. In 1796 another settler, with the assistance of a First Nations guide, blazed a trail from Antigonish Harbour to Brown’s Mountain, using the shortest route. This trail became a guide for travellers and eventually evolved into a winding Main Street. By the late 1820s, Dorchester was commonly referred to as Antigonish. In 1852, a newspaper, The Casket,…