Uplands, Greater Victoria

In 1907, the developers of Uplands, John A, Robert and Dawson Turner previously cattle and horse ranchers from Turner Valley Alberta and originally Scotland purchased the area for the sum of $275,000 and hired the leading landscape architect John Olmsted as the designer.

The Uplands of today is faithful to Olmsted's vision: an elegant neighbourhood with estate-sized lots, serpentine streets and the signature green, globed, ornate lamp posts.

Rather, it is a wild, seaside expanse of jagged rock crags, trees stunted and shaped by the wind, lonely heaths and dramatic ocean vistas.

[5] Oak Bay council voted on 13 October 2020 to install at Midland Circle a commemorative plaque to be provided by Parks Canada, in recognition of Uplands as a National Historic Site.

[7][8] Soils are well drained sandy loams of the Cadboro and Langford series (Cd-L or Lsl), or poorly drained sandy clay loams of the Tolmie series (Tscl); all have thick dark topsoils.

Map of Uplands, where the yellow line indicates the boundary. Source: The Corporation of the District of Oak Bay. “Consolidated Zoning Map, as of November 13, 2012” Bylaw 3531, Zoning Bylaw, 1986.