385654 4 Location 476917 <p>Larnach Castle is on the Dunedin peninsula, which today was wrapped in misty rain. We took a bus tour from the city information centre to the castle, leaving the pale autumn sunshine behind, and peering through the fog to see the view that the driver assured us was there. Suburbs gave way to farmland, where 100-year old dry-stone walling was evidence of how the settlers had made good use of the rocks they had cleared from the land. The castle grounds alongside the driveway have been replanted, with plants grown in nurseries in the grounds to ensure they are acclimatised. Mrs Barker, the present owner of the castle, gets involved in all aspects of the refurbishment, and recently was out in the rain supervising the placement of ferns being planted. </p><p>In front of the castle is a circular lawn, with a pond in the middle and the drive around the circumference. The driver let us off at the side of the main entrance by the ballroom, and told us some of its history. The ballroom, at the side of the main castle, was built for Larnarch's favourite daughter for her 21st birthday. It is now a pleasant cafe. It has the original sprung floor of NZ timber, nicely polished. The ceiling is arched like a church's, with the curved beams exposed, and the windows have richly-tasselled curtains. There are 3 chandeliers, and 3 or 4 deer heads are mounted on the walls. </p><p>We left the ballroom and walked up the stone steps to the main entrance, and followed the bus driver-guide around the castle. First to a glassed-in conservatory, that used to be an open veranda. That led through to the music room, which has two pianos, and a hand basin where the Lanarch children washed their hands before their music lessons or practice. Then to the dining room, which has the original wood table that would normally seat 8 but can be extended to seat about 12. There is a serving area on the right of the room, where the servants put the food. Once the meal was served, one maid would remain in the room, standing at the end furthest from the door with her back to the guests, and only able to see them in a small concave mirror, I suppose so she wasn't staring at the guests as they ate. When she saw they had finished that course, she cleared away the dishes.</p><p>After dinner, the men would go to the library, and the women to their sitting room. The women had chairs about a round table, and a settee, and their room was furnished in light colours. All the furniture was made by tongue-and-groove joinery, and made to last, so the chairs are the original ones. The coals for the women's fire would be wrapped in tissue paper, so the ladies could stoke the fire themselves without having to call a servant or get their hands or gloves dirty. They wouldn't want a servant present, for it would limit their gossip.</p><p>The library where the men went after dinner to drink brandy, is darker, the ceiling stained with years of cigar smoke, but with the ornate plaster work still intact. A small poker table is in the middle of the room, which has hollows for the chips for 4 players. Bookshelves along the walls have some of the original volumes, and other books of a similar age and type.</p><p>The spiral staircase up the centre of the building is made of local timber, and the banister of one piece of wood cut into curved pieces and joined by tongue and groove. It is a Georgian hanging staircase - there is no centre pole and the stairs are self-supporting.</p><p>The master bedroom has windows on 3 sides, looking to the harbour entrance on the right, and over the front lawn and driveway on the centre. From his room, Larnach could keep an eye on the shipping and also see who was coming to his house. The windows are "double-glazed" by each having two sash windows, about 15-20 cm apart. The bed was the original, the size of a standard double bed. There was a bedroom to the north, and one to the south. Larnach's first wife had the north-facing one, the second wife had the south-facing one, and the third had the north-facing bedroom, which is also the coldest. It now displays one of the wives' wedding dress, and ornaments and personal items such as hair-brushes.</p><p>On the top floor, a conservatory-type room looks over the entrance, and has indoor plants. The room might have been the children's playroom. The Nanny had a tiny bedroom, with space for a small bed and not much else. On the other side of the stairwell is the children's bedroom, with a full-sized cot, a smaller cot, and pictures considered suitable for children - the ones over the larger cot are of angels. There is a small bathroom, with a solid marble bath which weighs a ton. It was manually winched in while the building was being done, before the roof was built. </p><p>A narrow spiral stone stair leads up to the roof. It's barely wide enough for one person to walk up - you have to call up the stairwell to see if anyone is coming down. The battlement-like area at the top is 1100 feet above sea level, 1000 feet being the ground level of the castle. I asked the tour guide why Larnach built here, so far from the city, as it would take a couple of hours to get to Dunedin by horse, and the weather could be cold and blustery. He said it was for the view, and Larnach had employed the best architects and craftsmen to make the most of it. The view was the same as from the master bedroom, rather misty in the distance, but the fog had cleared enough to see most of the harbour and out to sea. Below, in the fountain in the centre of the lawn, 6 or 8 ducks were swimming.</p> 2006-06-04T15:33:21-07:00 970981403 2006-04-29T17:00:00-07:00 0 -9223372036854775790 183449 1547034 385654 0 204050 0.234345266443145 2006-04-29T17:00:00-07:00 Published 150.0 2006-06-04T15:41:45-07:00 43884 0