Restigouche County

Restigouche County encompasses much of the northern part of the province, and most of its border with Quebec.  It is defined by a narrow strip of settlement along the upper reaches of Chaleur Bay, and a vast, heavily forested hinterland rising to the inland farming plateau around St Quentin.  Exploited primarily for its resources during the French regime, the coastal communities were firmly rooted by Scots Catholic settlers after 1763, giving the region’s towns and villages its distinctive names: Campbellton, Dalhousie, Balmoral, Atholl, etc.  The region remains largely a unique mixture of Acadian and Scots Catholics.

The region became home to a large number of Acadian refugees in the Seven Years’ War and in 1760 the last overland link to the final French bastion in Montreal.  The result was a six week long Battle of the Restigouche in which the final fate of French North America was sealed.  In the 1770s American raiders plundered the area during the American Revolutionary War.