Mature Flânuer Down Under
New Zealand’s Only (Haunted) Castle
There may be more than one ghost in Larnach Castle
As Teresa and I entered Constance’s bedroom on the second floor of Larnach Castle, our eyes were immediately drawn to the ceiling, where a woman with dark hair and bluish skin hovered in the air, wearing nothing but her Victorian-era undergarments…
From time to time as we traveled New Zealand, Teresa, my beloved spouse, would gaze at a craggy, grey mountain, or a blue, loch-shaped lake, or a green hillside filled with sheep, and exclaim “This looks exactly like Scotland!” We both love that far-off, wild land that is so similar in so many ways to this land down under that many Scots actually emigrated here more than 150 years ago. Many New Zealand place names reveal the attachment of Scottish New Zealanders to their land of origin, such as Eskdale, Cape Campbell, Ardmore, and Glenorchy — to name just a few out of more than a hundred.
But on a high hill in the remote and windswept Otago Peninsula, near the oh-so-Scottish city of Dunedin, one can find the most Scottish place in all New Zealand: a stone castle, complete with ghost, supposedly, and a tragic tale of the wealthy family who once lived there. Larnach Castle is, in fact, the only castle in all of New Zealand. Indeed, why…
