Central Journal 4

Feb 4- Craigdarroch Castle Tour

"Last week, in Mosaic the City Enrichment, we all trekked up the hill to Craigdarrock Castle." Maya Lune wrote. As a group we all walked to the castle from the school and went past the Craigdarroch Care Home, where we ran into our community partner - Christina- a caregiver. She was very happy to hear our joyful voices and energy walking through their neighbourhood. We showed the rest of the group where we had visited with the seniors last week and then we continued on to the castle.

Yvonne Sharpe- the operations manager of the castle gave the group of over thirty of us, students, parents, teachers and leaders a tour of this neighbourhood jewel.

She started the tour with ideas of how this historic home is all about community connections, and she paralleled this to Mosaic the City's Community Unity. Maya noted that "there was a brief introduction of the history of the castle"

She also was interested in the" shoe brush right inside the front door and we alll had to clean off our shoes." Yvonne then gave us a brief tour of the main floor, where Yvonne spoke of how the whole house tells a story, through all its many rooms and antiques.

She told us about how most of the castle's stained glass was made in the USA and had huge heritage reference to the castle's original family. The Scottish Thistle- representing the Dunsmire's connections to Scotland and the lovely bluebells referred to their English heritage.

The castle has the most amazing architecture and art. The woodwork, furniture and stained glass as totally inspiring for all of us. The many different pieces which have been hunted down and returned to the castle to be placed in their original place- there is much Serendipity throughout the castle's many treasures. Maya wrote in her jouranal that "there were so many rooms! There were bedrooms for all of the children that lived at that house. There was a home library, a billiards room, servant rooms, even with servant schedules with their daily routines. At the very top of the castle there was a mosaic that had it's very own room."

Our Visit to Craigdarroch Castle
Today we got to tour the great Craigdarroch Castle. We were lucky because we could tour the castle ourselves. Many of the windows are actually stained glass and it's truly beautiful to see the sunlight shining through them. The castle has recently gotten new carpets and we were some of the first people to walk on them. We saw the real dining table that the owner had back then. We climbed all the stairs and went to the tower where they have a beautiful view, but I'm sure that it's very different from what they would have seen so many years ago. A few friends of mine were thinking of how much we'd love to live in the castle. It would truly be magical.
by Maya Lune

We then did the remaining floors self guided. All this wonderful information and history made us think of the Serendipity of Mosaic the City and it's connections to this local historic treasure. This project has been connected to the castle from our first project in Market Square on to the second Community Unity project with Central. It should be interesting to see how far this connection lasts.

Writen by Shylene Schlackl with inserts from the journal of Maya Lune- Enrichment student