Ruins are all that remain of the Hermitage, a once magnificent stone mansion that was built in 1855 by George Gordon Browne Leith. The stones used in construction were quarried from local sites; the red bricks from the Dundas Valley and the limestone sills from the Credit River Valley. The last resident of the Hermitage was Mrs. Alma Dick Lauder, daughter of the Leiths. In 1934 the Hermitage was destroyed by fire. Mrs. Lauder built a small house within the ruins and continued to live there until her death in 1942. For many decades, the grand 100-hectare estate was home to the Leith family and its servants.