June 2019 – The Rose and the Thistle

Dundas Castle

Posted on June 30, 2019July 1, 2019 by Tonya U. Brown

`Photo by: A.D.Wheeler/The Explorographer`

Dundas Castle

The one in Edinburgh, Scotland, right? Nope, the one in the secluded forests of the Catskill Mountains in the good ole U.S. of A.

How odd (or maybe not, considering it’s me :P) that one of my first posts is not about Scotland, England, or even the sixteenth century for that matter. It is about a place that I have been obsessing about since seeing an abandoned house video on YouTube. The place is Dundas Castle in Roscoe, New York and although abandoned, it is hauntingly beautiful and still full of potential.

Shrouded in mystery, the original country house, called Craig-E-Clair, was expanded in 1915 with the beginning of the building of the castle now known as Dundas. Built on 964 acres, the massive estate has 40 rooms, and took the owner and originator of the idea, Ralph Wurts-Dundas, over eight years and more than a million dollars to construct.

Sadly, since it took over eight years to build, Mr. Wurts-Dundas did not live to see its completion. Ralph died in 1921, and construction stopped in 1924. The finishing touches were never added, and neither he nor his wife, Josephine, ever lived within its walls. Josephine had been committed to a sanatorium and upon her death, the castle passed to their only daughter, Muriel, who was a child at the time.

But the tragedy of Dundas Castle doesn’t end there. Muriel Wurts-Dundas, who had only visited the castle a handful of times, married James R. Herbert Boone and moved to England, where she too eventually was committed to a mental health institution. In her absence, Dundas had passed through the hands of several caretakers before being sold to the Prince Hall Grand Lodge of the Masonic Order in Manhattan.

Although Dundas Castle was used as a children’s summer camp for some time, no one has ever lived there, and it still stands empty to this day.

I just had an epiphany! My house is older than this one. It was built in 1890. Woohoo!

Feel free to click on the images below to view photographer, A.D. Wheeler’s other photos of Dundas Castle. Or, check out his other photos and the history behind the pics at https://portfolio.theexplorographer.com/Landscapes/Dundas/

<strong><a href=”https://TheExplorographer.com” target=”_blank” rel=”noopener”>Photo by: A.D.Wheeler/The Explorographer</a></strong>

Want to feel like you’re really inside Dundas Castle? Watch the YouTube video that spurred my interest.

Want to read more about Dundas? Take a look at these sites:

http://dundascastle.synthasite.com/

https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/craig-e-clair-castle

One final note…

I have not been to Dundas Castle in Scotland, but I have been to a few others there. Can you tell this is one of my favorite things? Obsessed, I tell ya. Ob-sessed. It could be worse, right?

The following pictures are my own. Please see below for usage permission.

Bishop’s and Earl’s Palaces
Doune Castle (known to Outlander fans as Castle Leoch)
Dunrobin Castle (A Fairytale Castle)
Edinburgh Castle
Eilean Donan Castle
Falkland Palace
Glamis Castle (Setting of Shakespeare’s Macbeth)
Palace of Holyroodhouse
(The Queen’s official residence while in Edinburgh and principal residence of
Mary, Queen of Scots when she was alive.)
Stirling Castle
Urquhart Castle

Now go be the queen (or king) of your castle...and have a blessed day.

I allow the use of my images in this way:
Creative Commons License
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Under these conditions:
Attribution: Attribution to TonyaUBrown and theroseandthethistle.com must be made along with the image.

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Uncategorized

Welcome!

Posted on June 27, 2019June 18, 2020 by Tonya U. Brown

The farther backward you can look, the farther forward you are likely to see.”
— Winston Churchill.

I am so glad you’re here. If you found me through Twitter, you probably already know that I am a writer of historical fiction who loves all things British–and in particular, Scottish. If you came here from Facebook, then you probably already know that I have written a book about Mary, Queen of Scots. And if you know me from Instagram then you know that I like to post pictures of my travels and my kids–the two-legged ones and the four-legged one.

If you know me in person, then you know that I have a huge obsession with 16th century Europe and love to read about the Reformation and what life was like in that time period. I also like to read about the kings and queens of the medieval time period. You are likely to find any number of those topics on this blog.

I hope you love history as much as I do. If you do, then perhaps you’ll hang around and chat a while. Feel free to comment on what you liked, what you didn’t, and what topics you might like for us to discuss further.

Thanks for stopping by!

Tonya Brown

P.S. If you enjoy my blog, please like, subscribe and share with others!

Books

The Queen’s Almoner

Posted on June 27, 2019July 6, 2020 by Tonya U. Brown

Sometimes loyalty to the queen comes at a cost.

Thomas Broune is a Reformer and childhood friend of the young queen, Mary Stuart. When Mary embarks on a new life in her estranged homeland of Scotland, Thomas is there to greet her and offer his renewed friendship. But the long-time friends grow closer, and Thomas realizes his innocent friendship has grown into something more. Yet he is a man of the cloth. Mary is the queen of the Scots. Both of them have obligations of an overwhelming magnitude: he to his conscience and she to her throne.

When he must choose between loyalty to his queen or his quiet life away from her court, he finds that the choice comes at a high price. Driven by a sense of obligation to protect those he loves, and crippled by his inability to do so, Thomas must come to terms with the choices he has made and find a peace that will finally lay his failures to rest.