Real Estate hunting ....

Craigdarroch Castle

So while Freddie was at the doctor getting tinkered with me and Kim decided to go visit Craigdarroch Castle as last time we went there they had just closed. This time we ended up spending about 3 hours wandering around the home and talking to the staff. Its an absolutely amazing building and its funny how the whole house was designed to show of their wealth to visitors.

While at Craigdarroch Castle we where told about Government House which was just down the road. We thought while we are here we might as well pop down and go for a wander around the grounds. At first I wasnt sure if we where allowed to just drive in but in the end we just did. We parked up and noticed a car parked under the carport.
It had no license plates which must have meant that Mr Lieutenant Governor man must have been home. We continued our wandering around the grounds which is a reconstructed (for lack of a better word) native bush and yes we saw deer again just wandering around the garden in the middle of a suburb, God I love this place.

We then headed of to Hatley Castle which was build by the owners of Craigdorrach Castles son. We couldn't go inside the building as it now forms part of Royal Road University. However we got to wonder around it a bit. The mansion was purchased at one point by the Canadian Government to house the British Royal Family. There was pressure for them to leave London during WW2 with threads of Germany invading and Canada was seen as a safe spot. However that never happened as the King insisted on staying in London with his people and as a result the building was later sold. It has also featured in the movie franchise of X-men as Professor Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters. It also doubled as Luthor Mansion in the TV Series Smallville and a number of other TV and Films have used it including MacGyver. So we kind of did a British ABC Tour (Another bloody Castle/Cathedral) just Canadian style.