The

ruins Ruins () are the remains of a civilization's architecture. The term refers to formerly intact structures that have fallen into a state of partial or total disrepair over time due to a variety of factors, such as lack of maintenance, deliberate ...

of Cargill's Castle stand on a promontory overlooking the

Pacific Ocean The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the continen ...

New Zealand New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island count ...

's southern city of

Dunedin Dunedin ( ; mi, Ōtepoti) is the second-largest city in the South Island of New Zealand (after Christchurch), and the principal city of the Otago region. Its name comes from , the Scottish Gaelic name for Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. Th ...

. It is one of about ten

castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...

s in New Zealand, the other one in Otago being nearby

Larnach Castle Larnach Castle (also referred to as "Larnach's Castle") is a mock castle on the ridge of the Otago Peninsula within the limits of the city of Dunedin, New Zealand, close to the small settlement of Pukehiki. It is one of a few houses of this ...

. More a castle in name than in fact, this

Italianate The Italianate style was a distinct 19th-century phase in the history of Classical architecture. Like Palladianism and Neoclassicism, the Italianate style drew its inspiration from the models and architectural vocabulary of 16th-century Italian R ...

mansion A mansion is a large dwelling house. The word itself derives through Old French from the Latin word ''mansio'' "dwelling", an abstract noun derived from the verb ''manere'' "to dwell". The English word '' manse'' originally defined a property l ...

was built for

Edward Cargill Edward Bowes Cargill (9 October 1823 – 9 August 1903) was a 19th-century businessman and Member of Parliament in Dunedin, Otago, New Zealand. He was the Mayor of Dunedin from 1897 to 1898. Early life Cargill was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, i ...

, eighth child of city founder William Cargill, in the late 19th century, who called it ''The Cliffs''. Designed by the young architect

Francis Petre Francis William Petre (27 August 1847 – 10 December 1918), sometimes known as Frank Petre, was a New Zealand-born architect based in Dunedin. He was an able exponent of the Gothic revival style, one of its best practitioners in New Zea ...

, and built in concrete by Harry Lyders at a cost of £14,000, it was completed in 1877. Several kilometres south of the castle is

Tunnel Beach Tunnel Beach is a locality southwest of the city centre of Dunedin, New Zealand. Located just south of St Clair, Tunnel Beach has sea-carved sandstone cliffs, rock arches and caves. Beyond the beauty of the rugged sandstone cliffs, its claim t ...

, so named because this quiet beach is only accessible through a steeply sloping tunnel cut into the high cliffs by the Cargill family. It is also very likely that Petre was the supervisor of the construction of the tunnel. While designing the house, Petre fell in love with Cargill's daughter Margaret. After a difficult courtship (due to Petre's staunch

Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

and the Cargill family's equally staunch

Presbyterianism Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

) the couple were eventually permitted to marry, the wedding taking place in the villa's principal salon on 1 March 1881. The building was gutted by a fire in 1892, Cargill restored the castle but was unable to meet the cost of replacing all the wooden furnishings, though he did add a ballroom. The castle had several owners after Cargill's death in 1903, and was opened as a restaurant and cabaret in the 1930s by John Hutton, which became popular with visiting servicemen during World War II. Plans have been made on several occasions to restore the building to its former glory, but none have yet borne fruit. The castle now lies in ruins, a shell of what it once was. There is no public access to the site. Several kilometres south of the castle is

, so named because this quiet beach is only accessible through a steeply sloping tunnel cut into the 60-metre high cliffs by the Cargill family. The beach is reached via a public walking track, some six kilometres southwest of the city centre.

Construction

The house is built from concrete, with concrete roofs on the loggia and the tower, and concrete floors. Several different types of reinforcement were used, which makes this an early example of the technology both in New Zealand and overseas.

Notes

References

*Herd, J. & Griffiths, G.J. (1980). ''Discovering Dunedin''. Dunedin: John McIndoe. .

External links

Cargill's Castle Website
{{coord, -45.917706, 170.480416, display=title History of Dunedin Buildings and structures in Dunedin Castles in New Zealand Heritage New Zealand Category 1 historic places in Otago Francis Petre buildings 1882 fires 19th-century fires in Oceania 1870s architecture in New Zealand Ruins in New Zealand Cargill family (New Zealand) 1892 in New Zealand 1892 disasters in New Zealand