A Scottish linked name such as New Edinburgh appears to be an anomaly in a french area as la Baie Ste.-Marie. There again so does the name Clare.

Located at the mouth of the Sissiboo River...it's scenic view of the bay is a well guarded secret. For many years growing up in Clare I was never aware of the actual name of this area...to me it was simply called "le Bas-d'la-Rivière" or "en Bas- d'la-Rivière"...(the base of the river or at the base of the river). My grandmother was born and grew up here and I cannot ever remember her refering to it as New Edinburgh. As most older residents of Clare...she used the old names to indicate various locations and villages.

New Edinburgh was surveyed by English settlers and it would appear that it may have been intended to be the governmental center of the county. Each lot or private land parcel was divided into 10 acres each...there was also property set aside as common land which was a general design practice at the time. The layout of the "town' in the old documents also indicates land for an Anglican church and a protestant school.

A combination of events lead to the master plan for the town by the English settlers to fall apart and the area remained in the hands of the Acadians who had settled in the area years earlier. For a period of time...it appears that the Acadian inhabitants of the New Edinburgh area feared another...even though not as tragic...removal from the lands they were working.