Castles Made of Sand Fall in the Sea, Eventually

There are three "castles" overlooking Lake Winnipesaukee,and you may see them on our cruise. One is haunted, one is deserted and crumbling, and one is overrun with tourists. The tourist one, Castle in the Clouds (orignially known as the less hippie-ish Lucknow), is in Moultonborough, about 20 minutes to a half hour from the Weirs, but it is definitely worth the trip. If it’s a clear day when we start our cruise, you will be able to see the castle from the boat—it has a distinct orange roof that, from a distance, makes it look like a majestic Howard Johnson’s.

Seeing it from afar does not really compare to being there in person, though. When you get there, you have to pay at the gate and then drive a mile or so up a very steep , winding mountain road. It’s a little scary (make sure your brakes work first) but it’s worth it for the views of the lake and Mountains along the way. And, for some reason, my terror of heights doesn't kick in up there. This road is the only way up—the original owner, Thomas Plant, planned it that way, because he wanted it to be difficult for people to visit. When you live at the top of a mountain, you probably don’t want much company. Anyway, when you get the top you can’t even go straight to the castle; you must go first to the carriage house (which is now a snack bar) and take the tram up another series of winding roads.

I first went to Castle in the Clouds when I was six years old or so, but I didn’t really get to know it until college, when I was invited to do an internship with a yuppie freelance journalist who was writing a story about it. She needed someone to go with her up to the oceanside town of Bath, Maine, where the castle’s original owner grew up, and root around in their library to see if we could find out anything new about him or his family. To be honest, what we discovered was pretty bland by any standards (“He might have had an “e” at the end of his last name but dropped it because he didn’t want to sound Canadian! He built a nursing home in Bath where his elderly family members lived! His first wife was a schoolteacher!) but I felt like Nancy Drew in the attic of that old library, digging through old pictures and papers until dark, with the sounds of boat horns and seagulls in the distance.

I am also firmly convinced that I saw a ghost at the Bed and Breakfast where we stayed. I'm not going to tell that story here but I'll be glad to tell you in person.

The “castle” itself isn’t really a castle—Scott says it looks more like an oversized hunting lodge, and I agree that it’s not too grand or gothic; it’s like a really nice house that a B-level celebrity might own, but it's the panoramic views that make it spectacular. Also interesting is the fact that the original owner was a bit off his nut. For example, he had his own coat of arms made (it’s teeny-tiny) and invented all sorts of things for his house, including a central vacuum system, an intercom system, a shower that shoots water from all angles so you don’t have to move to get wet, and (this is the best part) he had a secret room. When I was little they didn’t let people see the secret room at all, which was pure torture ("There's a secret room over there but you can't see it and we're not going to talk about it. Now turn your eyes to the marble fireplace; do you know he had each tile hand-painted in Italy?" ) Things have changed, though--now you can not only see it but walk around in there.

Other fun facts: Thomas Plant died penniless, and one of his cooks bought the castle and let him live there until he died. He divorced his first wife by placing a check for a million dollars on her breakfast plate in the morning and walking out the door without a word--now that's class. And Teddy Roosevelt was a regular visitor (lots of wildlife to shoot around there); he even had his own room, although its' rumored that Teddy is the one who later persuaded him to invest in pork bellies, thus causing him to go broke later in life.

A second castle you can see from the Mount Washington (and this one really is a castle) is Kimball Castle. Kimball Castle has been in various books and on “paranormal” TV shows because it is apparently haunted, though I, believer in ghosts since 1989, , have not seen first hand evidence. The daughter of the original owner—who had based the design on a German castle he had seen from the Rhine—had stated in her will that the castle must never be used for commercial purposes. The original idea was for the town of Gilford to purchase the property and use it as a public park with free admission, but Gilford taxpayers being the wealthy but insufferable cheapskates that they are, (yes, I’m talking about you, Gilford taxpayers! What are you going to do about it?) the town broke its promise.

Anyway, to make a long story short , the town ended up selling some of the property (for commercial purposes) and since then lights have been going on in the castle at odd hours, even though there’s no electricity.

A third castle is known as "Hale Castle" and it's on Sleeper Island, an inhabited island that you can only get to by boat. Not much is known about it. The family of one of my friends in junior high, Kelly, had a cabin there. We used to row past the castle and imagine all sorts of scenarios about it, but we never got up the courage to try to go inside. Just as well; like the secret room, it might be better in my imagination.