Red Hill Valley is a

valley A valley is an elongated low area often running between Hill, hills or Mountain, mountains, which will typically contain a river or stream running from one end to the other. Most valleys are formed by erosion of the land surface by rivers ...

in eastern and south-eastern

Hamilton Hamilton may refer to: People * Hamilton (name), a common British surname and occasional given name, usually of Scottish origin, including a list of persons with the surname ** The Duke of Hamilton, the premier peer of Scotland ** Lord Hamilt ...

Ontario Ontario ( ; ) is one of the thirteen provinces and territories of Canada.Ontario is located in the geographic eastern half of Canada, but it has historically and politically been considered to be part of Central Canada. Located in Central Ca ...

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by tot ...

. The valley is named after and home to the Red Hill Creek, which flows north-east from Albion Falls on the

Niagara Escarpment The Niagara Escarpment is a long escarpment, or cuesta, in Canada and the United States that runs predominantly east–west from New York through Ontario, Michigan, Wisconsin, and into Illinois. The escarpment is most famous as the cliff over ...

, before bending north-west near the

Queen Elizabeth Way The Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW) is a 400-series highway in the Canadian province of Ontario linking Toronto with the Niagara Peninsula and Buffalo, New York. The freeway begins at the Peace Bridge in Fort Erie and travels around the western ...

and discharging into

Hamilton Harbour Hamilton Harbour, formerly known as Burlington Bay, lies on the western tip of Lake Ontario, bounded on the northwest by the City of Burlington, on the south by the City of Hamilton, and on the east by Hamilton Beach (south of the Burlington ...

at Windermere Basin. The name of the area comes from the reddish soil, rich with

iron Iron () is a chemical element with symbol Fe (from la, ferrum) and atomic number 26. It is a metal that belongs to the first transition series and group 8 of the periodic table. It is, by mass, the most common element on Earth, right in f ...

. The valley is estimated to be in size. The Red Hill Valley was the site of a protracted battle over an expressway through the valley, ultimately constructed in 2007.

Expressway

The Valley is the site of the

Red Hill Valley Parkway The Red Hill Valley Parkway (RHVP) is a municipal expressway in the Canadian city of Hamilton, Ontario. The route connects the Lincoln M. Alexander Parkway, Hamilton's second municipal expressway, to the Queen Elizabeth Way (QEW) near Hamilton Har ...

, which was completed through the valley in 2007. Originally called the Red Hill Creek Expressway during planning, construction was fought by environmentalists for many years. The expressway was proposed as part of a plan to bypass Hamilton along its south side, and facilitate development to the south and east of Hamilton. The valley, located between Hamilton's core and Stoney Creek, was chosen for the route of the expressway in the 1970s. The route was chosen over urban routes to avoid destruction of the neighbourhoods on either side and the resulting land costs. After government cancellations and environmental assessments, compromise plans proposed in the 1990s to save the valley were ultimately rejected. The final design incorporated some compromises intended to ameliorate the effect of the expressway on the valley, including reducing the expressway width from six lanes down to four, cleanup of toxic lands along the creek, and creek habitat improvement. The City of Hamilton proceeded with construction in the first decade of the 2000s. Construction was halted several times by protesters occupying the valley and blocking access to construction sites. The City had to complete the project with security firms patrolling the valley.

King's Forest

King's Forest is the name of the park lands at the head of the Valley where it meets the

. Within the King's Forest park, Red Hill Creek tributaries make three

waterfalls A waterfall is a point in a river or stream where water flows over a vertical drop or a series of steep drops. Waterfalls also occur where meltwater drops over the edge of a tabular iceberg or ice shelf. Waterfalls can be formed in several wa ...

over the Escarpment, the most notable being Albion Falls. Buttermilk Falls is near to Albion Falls and is the least known of the three waterfalls. The other waterfall is called Felker's Falls.

External links

Friends of Red Hill Valley
- An organization formed out of opposition to the expressway. {{coord , 43.2234, N, 79.7981, W, display=title Landforms of Hamilton, Ontario Valleys of Ontario