At first glance, this neo-Gothic structure looks like something straight out of a fairytale, with its towering turrets, lancet windows, battlements and sweeping archways.
Thank you for reading this post, don't forget to subscribe!However, shrouded in intrigue and ghostly goings-on, there’s no happily ever after to be found at this unsettling estate, known locally as the Castle of Sorrow.
Tucked away on a thousand acres in New York’s scenic Catskill Mountains, the medieval-inspired mansion was the lifelong dream of wealthy heir Ralph Wurts-Dundas.
Sadly, he passed away in 1921 before the project was finished and never saw the castle he’d dreamt of since childhood brought to life.
A year after his death, Ralph’s wife, Josephine, was committed to a psychiatric hospital and in 1924, construction ceased on the partially built property, though some of the grand spaces look to have been near completion, like this room with its carved hearth – captured here by photographer Walter Arnold, who documented the castle in all its faded grandeur on his YouTube channel.
After ownership passed to the couple’s daughter, Muriel, the castle’s bad luck still seemed to follow the family and she was later committed to a psychiatric hospital too.
After Muriel’s death in 1949, a branch of Freemasons moved in and the castle is thought to have been used as a retreat of sorts by the secretive group.
Abandoned since the 1970s, the once elaborate spread is a shell of its former grandeur, with crumbling plaster, encroaching damp and debris-strewn floors. However, the influence of the family is still said to linger across the estate…
According to local legend, the ghost of Josephine Wurts-Dundas is rumoured to wander the castle and its grounds.
Whatever the truth behind the tragic tale of this abandoned stately home, we can’t say we’d want to hang around for long.