Dundurn Castle
Recently, it dawned on me how little I had explored Hamilton and I became eager to visit as many landmarks and beautiful locales as I could.
For some time I have also wanted to take up photography as a hobby.
With my ever atrophying artistic vision, camera and thirst for adventure I’ve set out to explore Hamilton. Hopefully, these series of articles will provide any readers with a few pretty pictures, an idea or two for things to do if ever bored in Hamilton and motivation for me to continue practicing photography.
The first locale I visited was Dundurn Castle an 18000 square foot, National Historic site, mansion built in 1835.
I visited the spot over the weekend when the building was closed so wasn’t able to tour the interior, though the forty room estate normally functions as a civic museum. Interestingly, many famous people have visited this place, including our first prime minister and King Edward VII.
The building has an enormous lawn both in the front as well as the back and I can easily see having a picnic there one afternoon, stretched out along the grass.
The site is very easy to get to from the McMaster campus, its just a 10 minute drive or hop on the 05 and be there in half an hour.
I really enjoyed visiting Dundurn castle and seeing one of the famous sites
Hamilton had to offer. The building seems caught between two different architectural periods, sporting pillars that seem to come from a more classical era but also has sharp, abrupt edges that have a more modern feel. I would definitely put Dundurn castle high on the list of places you need to visit in Hamilton. I also liked that the visit gave me the opportunity to practice my photography skills. I’m currently reading a book “The Joy of Photography” that discusses various techniques for improving the quality of photos. One of the themes they discuss is finding lines in nature that guide the viewer to the focus of the image and when I visited Dundurn castle I was on the
lookout for these themes. One of my favourite photos was of a path leading to the castle lined by trees. I love how the trees frame the path and direct the eye to the castle in the distance.
Looking forward to the next adventure in the beautiful city of Hamilton!
