Olympic Harbor Beach

Olympic Harbour Beach is a small stone beach located at Portsmouth Olympic Harbour. The pathway leading to it was recently renovated as part of Kingston's Waterfront plan, so come check it out! Originally used to host sailing events for the 1976 Summer Olympics, the harbour continues to host annual Canadian Olympic Regattas (CORK) and other events that attract visitors from around Canada. The beach, located at the west corner of the harbour, is a great spot for swimming, launching a canoe or kayak or just enjoying the view of Lake Ontario. The site is loved by scuba divers who use the beach as a launch point to explore the many shipwrecks in the area, and by dog owners who bring their dogs swimming at the beach. The beach is located on Kingston’s Waterfront Pathway, an 8km trail that runs along the city’s shore, linking multiple sights and water access points throughout the downtown area, and connects to the Great Lakes Waterfront Trail. The trail is popular among walkers, joggers and bikers alike, many of whom stop at Olympic Harbour Beach to enjoy the water.

This beach is not monitored by lifeguards. Public washrooms are available at Portsmouth Olympic Harbour. There are no public showers available.

Olympic Harbour Beach is one of five sites monitored by the community water monitoring hub in Kingston. Launched in 2020, the Kingston hub is one of six Swim Drink Fish hubs across the country. It is also a Lake Ontario Waterkeeper project. The hubs aim to grow connections between communities and local waterways by providing access to low-cost and accessible water monitoring tools for citizen scientists. Through monitoring the water, the hub hopes to help inform community decisions about addressing pollution and protecting and restoring the Great Lakes.

We sample at this site every Tuesday morning and process our samples using TECTA-PDS technology, which provides us water quality results in less than a day!

You can learn more about the initiative and how to get involved here: https://www.swimdrinkfish.ca/volunteer

This project has been undertaken with financial support from Environment and Climate Change Canada.