It is situated in the center of Cape Breton, approximately 6 km east of where the Baddeck River empties into Bras d'Or Lake.

Baddeck is the shire-town of the Municipality of Victoria County, with an elected village commission having limited authority over water, sewer, side streets and some bylaws.

The area was first occupied by Mi'kmaq people and later settled by United Empire Loyalists and Scottish Gaels in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.

The area prospered in the 19th and early 20th centuries as a service and shipping center for surrounding mining, trapping, fishing, forestry, and farming actvities.

In 1841, Charles James Campbell opened a store, began a shipbuilding operation, and developed coal mining in the nearby area of Cape Dauphin approximately 35 kilometers away.

[6] He then built a complex of buildings, including a new laboratory,[6] named Beinn Bhreagh (Gaelic: beautiful mountain) after Bell's ancestral Scottish highlands.

[7] Initially a summer residence, Bell spent an increasing part of the year there, and conducted many experiments, including the AEA Silver Dart's first controlled powered flight in Canada in 1909.