One of my favorite pastimes is to motor down a road I’ve never been on to a place I’ve never seen. Today I loaded up my parents and we headed west to Loveland, Ohio where we toured the famed Loveland Castle.
It may be that we’re easily entertained but we are people who simply like to drive and see. Interstate travel is mind numbing and I like to avoid it unless I just need to make time. Today we took the road less traveled and had a fun time seeing all the great old houses, interesting churches, Quilt Barns and other sights along the way.
The purpose of today’s journey was to see Loveland Castle and it was a fun distraction on this Independence Day.
This place is a real oddity.
Loveland Castle, or Chateau Laroche, is located just outside Loveland on a bluff overlooking the Little Miami River. Chateau Laroche aptly translates to “Rock Castle.”
It’s a relatively small castle but what makes it unique is that it was designed and hand built by one man who worked on it for over fifty years. It’s creator was Harry Andrews, a New York native who came to the area after World War I.
Long story short, he contracted spinal meningitis during the war and was declared dead. However, he wasn’t dead and he lived to the ripe old age of 91 (the story of his resurrection is fascinating and is covered in a short film they play on site). Sadly, his fiancee married someone else before learning that he was still alive.
Heart broken, he had no desire to return to his hometown and instead traveled through Europe where he studied castles.
He then came to Loveland where he purchased land along the river. His hope was to give his Sunday School class of young men a place to camp, fish, swim and boat. At first the boys slept in tents. However, when the tents began to decay he asked the boys to fetch him some stones so he could build them a stone tent.
And the rest is history.
He went on to build his castle. Like I said, it isn’t large but it certainly is interesting. There are some fun things on display and they’ve done a nice job preserving Harry’s living space – just as it was when he lived there.
Harry worked on his castle until the day he died. As of January 1981, not long before Harry died, it was documented that he had carried about 56,000 pails full of stones from the river and nearby gorge. By hand. And many of those were when he was elderly. Although, they have a couple of nice videos looping and he was a very spry 90 year old with muscular arms at the time one film was made.
You’ll also see throughout the castle stones that were brought to Harry from other states and even other countries. His castle was a tourist attraction long before it was done, attracting thousands of visitors every year.
Today the Castle is run by the Knights of the Golden Trail, a knighthood born from that original group of Sunday School boys and a Boy Scout group that he led as well. These Knights guard the castle and consider it an honor to do so.
We visited on one of the hottest days of the year and it was sweltering inside. I would recommend going on a cooler day. Maybe a nice Autumn day when the sky is blue and trees golden and the air not so hot it hurts your skin.
Admission is just $5 cash and they prefer small bills.
This place is not handicap accessible. The stairs are steep and narrow although there are sturdy handrails to help you out. The grounds feel a bit rundown but I still thoroughly enjoyed the tour. Then again, I’m guessing a castle isn’t supposed to have perfectly manicured gardens and admission is just $5 so I shouldn’t complain.
One other recommendation – don’t even think about taking a large vehicle down their lane. No big trucks and certainly no campers or buses. I was driving an Elantra and was a smidge freaked out at every one of the twists in the road. And this coming from a gal who grew up driving in Vinton County where I know how to straighten the curves and fly up the hills.
Depending on your interests, this may not be something you want to make a special trip to do. Head into Cincinnati and check out a museum or the William Howard Taft National Historic Site (this is a story for another day but I really loved visiting here). Do some shopping or maybe hit Jungle Jim’s for some fun international fare and craft drinks. That area has some nice bike paths and state parks and there were lots of kayaks and boats on the river today.
If the purpose of your trip is the journey itself and whatever you might see along the way, you are a kindred spirit and I can assure you this is just the ticket for a fun day out.
If you go, I would be interested to know how your photos turn out. Mine were terrible. Granted, I left my camera at home in favor of my phone but my phone pictures are usually decent. They claim this place is haunted and that people often report weird things in their pictures or problems with their cameras. I don’t know about that but I’m hard pressed to give you a decent picture to view here. So – sorry about that.
Want to learn more about Loveland Castle? Check out their website.