Fredericton, Halifax and Prince Edward Island
A ring left behind on the final day of a Maritimes trip
Once you are home, your pins and photos from that day do the walking for you.
Leaving Halifax, Fredericton or the Island without your ring does not rule out a search, because someone else can do the looking after you have gone. Whether it succeeds turns on the kind of ground, lawn, sand or lake water, and on how precisely you can put the spot on a map.
Ring Seekers is a lost ring and jewellery recovery service that connects people who lost a ring, wedding band, watch, keys or phone in Fredericton, Halifax, Dartmouth, Charlottetown or Summerside with a metal detectorist who can search there.
Tell us what happened and where. We find a detectorist who can reach the beach, the park or the waterfront, brief them with your map and photos, and tell you honestly if the odds are poor.
Residents sometimes ask about metal detector hire instead. A rented machine is a fair first step when the ring can only be in one flowerbed or along one garden path. Lake water, a busy beach or a whole park is better left to a detectorist.
Still in town, or already home
Still in town: walk back to where you sat or stood once more in daylight, and ask at the front desk where you are staying whether anything was handed in. Stand on the spot, open your phone's map and save a pin before you pack.
Already home: scroll back through that day's photos. The last one that shows the ring on your finger gives you a time and a place, and the hours after it are where to look. If you moved around, say from Chocolate Lake to the Dartmouth side, list the places in order.
Places we cover in Fredericton, Halifax and PEI
- Fredericton
- The Green along the Saint John River
- Killarney Lake Park and Killarney Lake Beach
- Odell Park
- The artificial turf fields at the Grant Harvey Centre and Willie O'Ree Place
- Royals Field and the city ball diamonds
- Lincoln Heights Park
- Backyards in Fredericton, Halifax, Dartmouth and Charlottetown
- Halifax
- Chocolate Lake Beach
- Dartmouth
- Birch Cove Beach on Lake Banook
- Penhorn Lake Beach
- Albro Lake Beach
- Rainbow Haven, Lawrencetown, Martinique and Crystal Crescent beaches
- Parlee Beach, Shediac
- Charlottetown
- Confederation Landing Park
- Queen Elizabeth Park, Charlottetown
- The Winsloe and Parkman soccer complexes
- Cavendish, Brackley and Stanhope beaches on the north shore
- Summerside
- The Summerside Baywalk and the Duck Pond
- Queen Elizabeth Park, Summerside
- Hilson Point Park
Named places in New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and on the Island
Parks, playing fields, lake beaches and ocean beaches, grouped by area.
Killarney Lake Park, Fredericton
Killarney Lake Park has an open recreational area, a playground, the Killarney Lake Rotary Centennial Lodge and a supervised swimming beach of sand on fresh water. Lifeguards watch the water between the flags in front of the tower, and buoys mark the drop off. Dog walkers use the designated off-leash trails, so if you had the dog with you, say which trail you took.
The Green and Odell Park, Fredericton
The Green is a grassy, tree-shaded stretch beside the Saint John River where people come to stroll or sit quietly. In Odell Park, the fields, the duck pond and the Odell Park Lodge are the places to name.
Fredericton playing fields and backyards
The city's artificial turf fields are at the Grant Harvey Centre on Knowledge Park Drive and at Willie O'Ree Place on Cliffe Street, used for soccer, ultimate, football, rugby and lacrosse. Royals Field on Morrison Street is a baseball diamond, and the city lists Lincoln Heights Park on Goodine Street for cricket.
Chocolate Lake, Halifax
Chocolate Lake is a man-made lake ringed by trees, with only a small beach. Red buoys and buoy lines show where the swimming area is.
Lake Banook, Penhorn Lake and Albro Lake, Dartmouth
Birch Cove Beach is on Lake Banook, a lake popular for rowing, with several aquatic clubs and public docks. Penhorn Lake is roomy enough for active swimmers, and people walk or run round it and sit on the benches at its edge. The municipality also supervises a swimming beach on Albro Lake.
Ocean beaches around Halifax
East of Dartmouth, Rainbow Haven in Cow Bay and Lawrencetown Beach both have boardwalks down to the sand. Farther out, Martinique Beach is a long sandy beach with picnic areas behind the dunes, and south of Halifax, Crystal Crescent Beach faces the open Atlantic. Name the boardwalk you came down.
Confederation Landing and Queen Elizabeth Park, Charlottetown
Confederation Landing Park is on the Charlottetown waterfront at Great George Street, with flowerbeds, gazebos and a boardwalk, and many of the city's summer events take place there. Queen Elizabeth Park on Belvedere Avenue has softball diamonds, a regulation soccer field and a playground. Soccer is also played at the Winsloe complex on Lower Malpeque Road and the Parkman complex on Robertson Road.
Cavendish, Brackley, Stanhope and Parlee Beach
On the Island's north shore, Cavendish Beach has white sand below dunes and red cliffs. Brackley and Stanhope, closer to Charlottetown, have boardwalks and large parking lots, and a surfguard watches Stanhope in summer. In New Brunswick, Parlee Beach near Shediac is known for warm salt water, with a boardwalk running beside the sand.
The Baywalk, Queen Elizabeth Park and Hilson Point Park, Summerside
The Baywalk follows the Summerside waterfront, with benches and picnic spots, and its main parking lot is by the Baywalk sign on Water Street. It also passes the Natural Duck Pond and follows Mackenzie Drive, where there is an outdoor gym. Queen Elizabeth Park is where the city has hosted baseball and softball events. Hilson Point Park, reached by Corney Avenue, has picnic areas and benches.
Handled at a distance
Wherever home is
Your WhatsApp chat stays with the same person from the first message to the report after the search, whether you write from Toronto or from across the Atlantic. A photo you find next week goes into the same thread.
Where the detectorist starts
Whoever searches gets your pins, the photos from that day and the order you did things in, and begins at the last place you remember the ring.
Over the side in the harbour
A ring that went over the side of a boat in the harbour, or one first missed at the airport with no idea where, is a long shot, and you would hear that from us first.
Decided from home, without hurry
We explain the costs before any search is booked. Read them at home, ask whatever you want to ask, and give your answer when it suits you.
Landmarks to mention
What counts as a landmark changes from the lake to the field to the boardwalk.
At the supervised lake beaches
Killarney Lake, Chocolate Lake, Birch Cove and Penhorn Lake all have buoys off the beach. Name the beach and the part of the sand where your towel was, and say whether you stayed on the near side of the buoys the whole time.
Game days on the city fields
At Willie O'Ree Place, the Grant Harvey Centre or the fields and diamonds of either Queen Elizabeth Park, the game or practice you were at and where your bag was set down narrow the ground quickly. Give the date and time as well, since another team may have used the field after you.
Waterfront walkways
On the Confederation Landing boardwalk or the Summerside Baywalk, say whether it could have dropped on the path, slipped between boards or gone over the edge, and name the nearest bench, gazebo or sign.
Questions about Fredericton, Halifax and PEI
Our flight leaves Charlottetown tomorrow, and my ring came off somewhere in Confederation Landing Park. What should I do before we go?
Walk the park once more in daylight, drop a pin at each gazebo, bench or flowerbed where you stopped, and photograph each spot. Then go home as planned. The search is organised from those pins and photos, together with a picture or description of the ring.
Is an Oura ring lost while swimming at Killarney Lake Beach worth a search?
It helps that the beach has fixed markers. The lifeguard zone is the water between the flags in front of the tower, and the buoys mark the drop off. Tell us where on the sand you walked in, whether you stayed inside the buoys, and whether you were standing or swimming when you noticed the ring was gone.
I think my watch came off between the turf field at the Grant Harvey Centre and my car.
The south artificial turf field is at the Grant Harvey Centre on Knowledge Park Drive. Pin the sideline where you left your things and the row you parked in, then say whether you walked straight to the car or stopped on the way. The make of the watch and the colour of its strap help too.
Could a necklace that broke while I was swimming at Chocolate Lake be in deep water?
Only if you went past the red buoy lines. Inside them the deepest point is between 5 and 6 feet, and outside them the water gets very deep. Tell us which way you swam from the small beach, and describe the chain and any pendant.
Where would a search for a wedding band at Birch Cove Beach on Lake Banook begin?
At the red buoys that mark the swimming area, and at the spot where your blanket was. Lake Banook also has aquatic clubs and public docks, so if you went out onto a dock, say which one. Tell us too whether you had the band on when you went in the water.
A phone slipped out of my pocket while I sat on a bench on the Summerside Baywalk.
Tell us how far you had walked from the Baywalk sign on Water Street, and describe the bench and what you could see from it. Then say whether the phone could have landed on the path, on the grass or down towards the shore, and give us the model and the colour of its case.
Which details matter for an earring lost at a softball game at Queen Elizabeth Park in Charlottetown?
Queen Elizabeth Park on Belvedere Avenue has softball diamonds, a regulation soccer field and a playground. Start with the diamond, the dugout side and where you sat, and add the playground if the children spent time there. The matching earring, photographed beside a coin, shows us its size.
Is one new garden bed in our Fredericton backyard worth a detectorist's time?
A yard has edges, and that helps. Tell us where the soil from the bed ended up, whether it has been raked out or bagged, and where else in the yard you worked that day.
Fredericton, Halifax and PEI
One message with the town and the item
Any town on this page, any day after the loss.
On WhatsApp, name the town, the park or beach and what came off, and add the date it went missing. We take it from there, one question at a time.