My Love Affair With Castles

There is a castle just down the street from me, about a 10 minute walk. I can see my apartment building from the turret. It isn't an ancient castle, but holds enough charm to warrant a visit. I toured the inside sometime in August, and found the design to be a bit odd. The ballroom, which was huge, is on the third floor, above the children's bedrooms. There aren't much to the grounds at this particular castle, as they society that maintains it barely managing the maintenance and restoration of the structure. The better grounds are just down the street at Government House, which I posted photos of previously. What is unique about this castle is it contains the largest collection of residential stained glass in Canada. I only posted photos of a fraction of the glass. It was very gorgeous.


When I was a child, we had an old lamp carved into a castle, and when lit, the tiny windows of the castle all lit up. It had stairways going here and there, and doorways that lit up as well. The castle was my favorite piece of furniture we owned, and while it generally traveled well over the years, it eventually was smashed to smithereens by the movers, much to my dismay. I've looked for another the same for years online, with no luck.


I've collected and been given various castles over the years, ceramic, carved, sandstone, you name it. I have none of them left, as I lost all of my castles in the fire. None of them came close to what I loved about that castle lamp.


I've been fortunate to tour a number of castles so far in my lifetime. Some were very ancient, hundreds of years old, while others were just a couple of hundred years old or newer. My favorite so far has been Kilkenny Castle in Kilkenny, Ireland. I liked the grounds at Blarney Castle near Cork, and the castle was quite grand, although the main floors had all collapsed, the spiral staircase remained, and the upper walk was intact, next to the Blarney stone. I'm sure they were cold and drafty in their time, but there is still something very mystical about a true castle, and I'd love to get the chance to rent one some day and explore it's many corners, niches and passageways. They do offer castle rental in certain places, so perhaps some day...