Dundurn Castle

Staircase in Front Lobby of Dundurn Castle

Joseph Hollick

Dundurn Castle is a National Historic Site that illustrates the life and times of Sir Allan Napier MacNab (1798 - 1862).

Dundurn Castle was constructed over a three-year period, and completed by 1835. Designed by a young English Architect, Robert Wetherall, Dundurn was built around the brick shell of Colonel Richard Beasley's colonial home. Designed as a fashionable Regency style villa, Dundurn (Gaelic for "strong fort") was nicknamed "Castle" by the citizens of Hamilton. The Castle, with its gardens, grounds and many unusual outbuildings, was one of the finest estates in the province.

Today, Dundurn Castle has been restored to the year 1855 when MacNab was at the height of his career as a lawyer, landowner, railway magnate and Premier of the Pre-Canadian confederation of the United Canadas (1854-56). Over forty rooms have been furnished to compare the life of a prominent Victorian family with that of their servants. Costumed staff guide visitors through the home, illustrating daily life from the 1850s.

A little known fact is that Sir Allan MacNab was the great-great-great grandfather of Prince Charles' wife, Camilla The Duchess of Cornwall. On her first ever visit to Canada in November 2009, Princess Camilla, with Prince Charles, visited Hamilton and Dundurn Castle and was extremely impressed with it!