The Merrickville Lockstation is the village's centre of gravity. Boats pass through the Rideau Canal here in season, using the same basic waterway that linked Ottawa and Kingston in the 1830s.
The lockstation is best enjoyed slowly: watch a boat rise or drop, walk the towpath, and look back at the blockhouse and stone buildings around the water. It is a practical piece of canal engineering that happens to make a handsome village scene.