Tucked into the northern Alberta landscape roughly 121 kilometres north of Edmonton, Colinton sits just 4 kilometres east of Highway 2 along Highway 663, placing it within Athabasca County. The hamlet is made up of two designated places recognized by Statistics Canada – Colinton and McNabb’s – along with additional lands lying south of McNabb’s that fall outside either of those defined boundaries.
The name Colinton traces back to James Maurice Milne, the original landowner on whose property the railway station was constructed. Milne chose to honour his Scottish birthplace, Colinton, Scotland, when naming the community. Before taking on that name, the hamlet was previously known as Kinnoull. In terms of population, the 2021 Census recorded 169 residents living in 68 of the hamlet’s 100 private dwellings, representing a notable decline of 33.5% from the 254 people counted in 2016. That figure itself had already dropped from 274 residents recorded in 2011. The community covers a land area of 3.55 square kilometres, giving it a population density of approximately 47.6 people per square kilometre as of the 2021 count.