Craigdarroch Castle

Canada

Craigdarroch is a granite and sandstone house completed in 1890 for the Dunsmuir family, Scottish immigrants to Canada who made a fortune from Vancouver Island coal sold primarily in the San Francisco Bay area. The castle was built on an 11-hectare site high above Victoria, the capital city of British Columbia. Over 150,000 people visit the museum each year to marvel at the extraordinary woodwork and art glass windows. The majority of the interior is presented as a 19th century residence, but portions of the house are used to tell the stories of the many public institutions that used the place for most of its lifetime.