Canadian Parks Movement: Hamilton Experience - Castle
The Castle
About 1840, on the hill above and south of the Albion falls, Mr. William Cook, a Scotsman and a Welland Canal contractor, built a five-storey stone "castle" with fourteen fire-places. Ten acres of park lands surrounded the house, ornamented with walks, arbours, pergolas, shrubs, and fruit trees. Two small lakes for boating, about an acre in extent, were connected by a channel and fringed by willow trees.
The estate covered 400 acres of forest. It included a stream of fine spring water, a lime-kiln, and a salt-lick where wild deer came.
In every direction, this "castle" commanded a wide range of rolling hills and waving trees, standing high above the ravine (now the King's Forest), and giving a wonderful view of the widening valley, Burlington Bay, and Lake Ontario.
Time changes all things. In the 1870's, the owner died; fire destroyed the barns, the estate was lost to the family; and the "castle" known as "Cook's Folly" was pulled down. By 1962, all that remained of the place were the two little lakes.
References:
1. The Head - of - the - Lake Historical Society, Hamilton, Ontario. Wentworth Bygones. no. 3. p. 16. Special Collections, HPL.
