The Natural Setting
	The house built by Richard John Uniacke is sited on a low rise on the shore of Lake Martha. The lake is surrounded by hills, giving a sense of spacious enclosure to views from the house and grounds. The site sits on the drainage divide between the Bay of Fundy and Saint Margaret's Bay. It is rather flat, occupying an ancient landscape at the base of an eroded mountain range. Recent glaciation disturbed the landscape, excavating soil and loose rock, and re-depositing it and other debris carried in the ice. In some places the bedrock was left exposed, but in other places, the glacial deposits were thicker. Old drainage patterns were also disturbed, creating lakes, ponds, and wetlands.

	Although at its full extent the estate included lands underlain by granite, almost all of the current holding of about 2000 acres is underlain by quartzite. The soils that develop in the glacial till over this bedrock are thin, coarse-textured, and well-drained. The presence of a few thick deposits of till on the estate is significant. These deposits, known as drumlins, have deeper, more finely textured soils, providing the only soils on the site with any real agricultural capability. The forest reflects soil and drainage conditions. Low, wet, and cold northern slopes tend to support softwood forests, while deeper, drier, warmer slopes often support hardwood forests. These woodlands include terrestrial and freshwater habitats that are typical of this part of Nova Scotia, classified as the Atlantic Interior Theme Region in The Natural History of Nova Scotia. Two units of the Atlantic Interior are represented by the Museum Park: the Quartzite Barrens and Headwater Lakes Drumlins. For more information see Theme Regions, Volume 2, The Natural History of Nova Scotia, editors Derek Davis and Sue Brown, The Province of Nova Scotia and Nimbus Publishing, 1996.

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