Thanks to the tireless work of French explorers, the colony of New France covered the largest area, but it was numerically inferior to the neighbouring New England.

An unusual feature of Montreal's defence was a string of 30 outlying forts to protect against the constant Iroquois threat to the expansion of French settlements.

[5] The majority of these were simple stockades, but as artillery was not as developed as on the battlefields of Europe, some of these were built like the fortified manor houses of France.

Roughly four of these were substantial stone forts which served as defensive residences, sometimes considered "true castles", as well as imposing structures to prevent Iroquois incursions.

[6] The attack had come shortly after the 1690 Battle of Quebec, and an enraged Governor-General Frontenac ordered the construction of a second, more imposing fort.

In 1776, Fort Senneville was destroyed during the American Revolutionary War by Continental Army troops under Benedict Arnold, in military manoeuvres associated with the Battle of the Cedars.

In 1865, the property was purchased as a summer residence by John Joseph Caldwell Abbott, former prime minister of Canada and Mayor of Montreal.

[7] The site's value today includes its ecological and environmental significance, and its shoreline, which is in a semi-natural state, is part of the habitat for the rare map turtle.