The Bastion is a three-storey octagonal timber tower built by the Hudson's Bay Company in 1853, making it the oldest intact structure in British Columbia. It was built to defend the company's coal-mining operation against attack and served as an armoury and office building. Today it stands at the edge of the old town near the harbour, an incongruous wooden fort surrounded by modern streets.
The interior is open during summer months with a small collection of artifacts from the fur trade era. The building itself is the main interest — the construction technique and the scale give a visceral sense of how precarious early European settlement on Vancouver Island was.