It provides local government to about 7,000 residents of the eponymous historical county except for the Wagmatcook 1 reserve.

British settlement began in the 1700s after the territory was had been by France.

In 1839, a property containing an inn, a tavern, and a post office was built in Baddeck.

In 1841, Charles James Campbell opened a store, began shipbuilding, and developed coal mining.

In 1851, Victoria County was split from Cape Breton County, and Baddeck became the site for the new county's jail and court house, and later the site of Alexander Graham Bell's Beinn Bhreagh, a summer residence and research centre,[4] and the Bell Boatyard.