Stomping Ground Saturday: Craigdarroch Castle
In my Marina Colleen books, which takes place on Vancouver Island, there is a castle on a hill built by Douglas MacTavish for his wife Colleen. When they ran out of money and faced losing their beautiful home, practical Colleen who had been raised in an Irish tavern, came up with the idea of turning it into a luxury hotel and spa. The result created the town of Marina Colleen, and later the Orchards were built up. And that's where my stories take place.
Victoria BC, is a real city on Vancouver Island, and it too has a castle. Craigdarroch (pronounced Craig-dare-oh) was built by Robert and Joan Dunsmuir as a private residence. Since that time it has served as a military hospital, a college, a music conservatory, and now a museum. I grew up in Victoria and never visited it at that time because it was a music conservatory and not open to the general public. However I have visited it a couple of times now and it's a stunning building, with museum workers who are dressed in late 19th century costumes and sometimes portraying people who were connected to the castle at that time.
Unlike most big homes that are divided between upstairs and downstairs, where servants work in the basement and have rooms up in hot attics, and the family lives on the middle floors, Craigdarroch is divided in half so that one side is the family quarters and the other the servants.
In the main school room where students gathered during the college years, they carved their initials into the woodwork, and there is more than one famous Canadian name in there.
Like all secret princesses I had always dreamed of living in a castle - still do, I haven't grown up yet. Alas, unless I become the next J.K. Rowling that dream is out of sight in this life. But I can pretend when I visit this castle.
Of course, I can't find any pictures that I've taken, so I post one from the internet. However, I will post some links to this lovely place.
Tripadvisor Craigdarroch Castle (so many pictures here!)
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