King of the castle: inside the ruins of Cargill’s Castle

Just over two decades ago, you could have bought a castle for just $180,000.

Well, at least the ruins of a former stately home.

That was the amount that the Cargill’s Castle Trust paid for the ruins of Cargill’s Castle, nestled above St Clair.

The sum secured the building from demolition, although in the proceeding two decades the weather has taken its toll on one of the country’s only two castles, with the more palatial being Larnach Castle on the nearby Otago Peninsula.

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The castle is now minus its roof, flooring, stairs and features the odd bits of graffiti and even a visible rabbit on the grounds now ringed by a wire fence and watched by security cameras.

“It was certainly a stately house,” de Graaf said of the building, where construction began in 1875 and was completed two years’ later.

Originally called ‘The Cliffs’, it became known as Cargill’s Castle, and boasted 21 rooms, several acres of sweeping grounds, stables, and later a ballroom was added after fire badly damaged the interior in 1892.

Its name comes from Edward Cargill, who commissioned Francis Petre, a pioneer in the use of concrete in, to design the building, which cost £14,000 to construct – a fortune at the time.

Petre, who was given the nickname ‘Lord Concrete’, also designed some of the south’s most prominent buildings including Dunedin’s St Dominic Priory and St Joseph’s, as well as the Christchurch Basilica.

The Cargill family remained in the home until 1908, but with a decade the property had fallen into disrepair and was later turned into a restaurant and cabaret during the prohibition ere, including being raided for contraband beer.

Later in the 1940s it went from alcohol-fuelled debauchery to an evangelical centre – and would change ownership – and uses – over the coming decades.

Plans in the seventies to turn it into a hotel never eventuated, and it slowly began to decline. In the early 1980s it featured in The Verlaines’ video, Death and the Maiden.

De Graaf used to play in the castle as a kid, which back then was largely ‘’hidden away’’, and had none of the surrounding housing that existed today.

As well as plans to preserve the property, it was hoped a walkway to connect St Clair’s Second Beach with Tunnel Beach – just 2km away – could be achieved in the future, he said.

As an aside, Edward Cargill’s brother, John, was the person behind Tunnel Beach, which included a tunnel to a secluded beach for his children.

But the more pressing work for the trust was preserving not restoring, the ruins.

“We are not going to rebuild it in any way shape or form.”

Future work would include installing steel bands to wrap parts of the large unreinforced concrete build to mitigate against earthquake risks.

Large cracks were visible around the property, with some damage experienced during any significant weather event.

“It has been abandoned since the 1970s, so it has stood the test of time remarkably well.”

The intention was to eventually open it to the public, possibly for tours, but first it needed to be made safe, he said.

Exasperated by unauthorised visitors, the trust had installed cameras around the property, which featured high wire fences, while photos of the interlopers were sometimes published online.

The trust also wanted to instal some walkways and stairs to show people inside and outside the castle.

The Dunedin City Council had already approved a resource consent for stabilisation work, which was now urgently needed given the current state of the building, he said.

It was a listed Category One building with Heritage New Zealand which described it as having ‘’outstanding aesthetic significance’’.

‘’The structure is the epitome of a romantic ruin – spectacular cliff top location, crumbling grandeur, set amidst the remains of its garden. Cargill’s Castle is a landmark in Dunedin.’’

While putting a roof on had been discussed previously “we are not planning to, just keep it as a ruin”.

The trust was yet to have a figure on the cost of the works, but it “will more than a couple of million, but we don’t really know”.

Once the detailed design was completed, the trust would embark on a major fundraising push, he said.