Beaubassin, National historic site in Cumberland County, Canada

Beaubassin is a national historic site and archaeological site in Cumberland County, Nova Scotia, set across open fields and marshland crossed by a railway line at Fort Lawrence Ridge. The ground preserves the traces of a former Acadian settlement, including cellar remains, structural outlines, and scattered objects that together map out how the community was once laid out.

Jacques Bourgeois and Michel Leneuf de La Vallière et de Beaubassin founded the village in 1671 on the Tantramar marshlands. In 1750, as British troops under Major Charles Lawrence arrived, the French and their allies burned the settlement to prevent its use, destroying forty-five buildings. The British then built Fort Lawrence nearby.

Cellar remains and everyday objects found on the site show how residents organized their homes and maintained trade connections with distant communities. Walking through the site today, visitors can read interpretive signs that link these physical traces to the daily routines of the people who lived here.

The site can be visited on foot, and interpretive signs posted throughout help orient visitors to different areas of the former settlement. Paths cross uneven ground and can be wet, so sturdy footwear is a good idea, especially after rain.

Fort Lawrence was not a reply to the burning of Beaubassin: the British built it in 1750 after Major Charles Lawrence's 800 troops occupied the isthmus, and the French answered with Fort Beauséjour across the Missaguash. In 1755 the British took Beauséjour, renamed it Fort Cumberland and burned Fort Lawrence so enemy troops could not use it.