About Birch Cliff
The Birch Cliff Lodge cottages are charming and completely modernized with thermostatically controlled heating, full kitchens and four-piece bathrooms.
A picturesque resort nestled among a towering array of trees on the scenic shores of Baptiste Lake in Bancroft, Ontario.
We also have many transit trailer and tent sites available for booking.
Our kitchens have full size refrigerators and stoves and are stocked with dishes, cutlery and cooking utensils. Each cottage has either a screened porch or an open deck with a table and chairs. Linens are supplied upon option. All cottages have propane BBQs.
Upon arriving at Birch Cliff Lodge you will find your cottage clean and well aired. There will be enough coffee, tea, sugar, salt, pepper, soap and cleaning supplies to get you started and we are an easy ten minute drive from great shopping in Bancroft.
If you have any special requests please don't hesitate to let us know. The cottages and main lodge face southwest, overlooking Baptiste Lake. It is an open, breezy location with a natural sand beach.
History of the Resort
By the summer of 1932 most of the present Birch Cliff Lodge cottages had probably been built and given their somewhat quaint Scottish names, including Bide-a-Wee, Linger Long, Restin Up, Dunworryn and Everest. The lodge was always centered around the dining room. This building, with its distinctive vertical glazing bars on the upper half of the windows, was originally William Mulcahey’s home, built about 1917, at the time he sold “Grant’s Store” to Hiram and Elizabeth Grant. Mulcahey was the founder of Baptiste Village and owned all the land of the present Village. Today the lovely dining room is used for special occasions such as weddings and conferences and our annual thanksgiving dinner which is open to the public. In the summer we also have a weekly pot luck dinner with our guests.
Birch Cliff thrived under the direction of the founders, Art and Edyth Nicoll with most guests coming from Ohio, Pennsylvania and New Jersey, along with a smaller number from Ontario and Quebec (the President of Bell Telephone in Montreal was a frequent visitor). The Millne family then purchased the resort and has operated it the past 40+ years. The resort is now owned and managed by Steve Bell, since 2024. The main attraction was, of course, fishing, but the pollen-free air, in the days before allergy shots and ‘puffers’, was also an important inducement for guests. A large fleet of flat-bottom wooden boats, painted white with green trim and powered by 5 hp outboard motors, took guests fishing. The usual pattern was to go with a guide, take a shore lunch and spend the day on the lake.
Today, outwardly, Birch Cliff Lodge has been restored to its original 1930s to 1950s appearance. Inside the cottagers, however, everything has changed; complete modern kitchens and bathrooms with lots of hot water; enlarged bedrooms and sitting areas; screened porches and open decks; comfortable seating and comfortable beds combine to provide 21st century vacationers with the comforts they are used to.
About The Lake
Baptiste Lake is located in the granite highlands south of Algonquin Provincial Park. The lake gets its name from Algonquin Chief Jean Baptiste, believed to be the first permanent resident.
Baptiste Lake and its surroundings are situated within the Grenville Province of the Canadian Shield, which is a northeasterly trending belt about 250 miles wide (from upper New York State to just south of Sudbury) and 1,200 miles long, extending from Lake Huron to the Labrador coast. A continental collision deformed the crust of the earth about a billion years ago, pushing up a mountain range along a line running roughly through Parry Sound, Haliburton, Bancroft, Pembroke and on to the Gatineau Hills of Quebec. This mountain chain, once as high as the Rocky Mountains, has been reduced by erosion to what are today the highlands around Baptiste Lake.
Perfectly Secluded.
Our cottages are secluded enough to enjoy a quiet family getaway, yet only a short distance from many local attractions. You will find all your basic amenities along with several quaint shops in the town of Bancroft and the local ice cream parlour which serves up the famous Kawartha Dairy ice cream.
Annual Destination
Over the last several decades, Birch Cliff Lodge has had the pleasure of hosting numerous families and groups which have been thoroughly pleased with our cottages and surroundings. We are proud to say that many of these families have begun to make Birch Cliff Lodge their annual summer vacation destination. We take pride that our customers truly have a get away where the rest of the world can slip away.
