Perched on a hill, overlooking the North Atlantic, once sat a ruined castle. Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. 11 August 1991.
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Images & Text by Lorrie Szekat
©2009 - 2011
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Thank you so much for posting this picture.
ReplyDeleteI visited this castle a short while,(6-18 months?), after the builder had died. I slept in it overnight with a friend,in the summer of 1978 or '79,I think. We were hitch-hiking & were given a ride by a woman who guided us to it. She had been a friend of the builder & told us the story of how he died. He had undertaken an extremely long fast,60 days she told us. She was one of the few people visiting him & finally convinced him to end the fast,leaving him some nuts & raisins. Unfortuneately,he mis-judged how much his digestive system could handle at once & the raisins in particular attacked his shrivelled & unprepared system & he died. He probably needed to start off with very small amounts of a more liquid diet to come off such an extremely long fast & he certainly should not have been alone. That is the story she told me. Do you know anything of it?
The story reminds me very much of the story of the Buddha's enlightemnent,except that it doesn't end as well. Otherwise the story is much the same. An ascetic retires to the wilderness & becomes a champion among his fellows at austerities & fasting, until one day deciding to end the fast, he is served by a maiden & vows to achieve enlightenment & Nirvana.
The difference is that the Buddha's offering maiden brought him milk-rice instead of nuts & raisins. Do you know if there is anything there still? You imply it is now gone? I google-mapped the site & there appears still to be a structure at the site, although the resolution is not very good.
I am glad to see the castle was still standing in August of 1991. It was built with care & built well. Do you know if it yet stands?
Thank you again for bringing back such memories & thank you for letting me share what I know of it. I would love to know more.
Yours very sincerely,
Marinus Sorensen,
Kingston,Ontario,
marinus.sorensen@gmail.com
Hey i'm Adam. the man who built the cabin name was jim. my uncles larry and pete and billy helped him build it. my mom and my uncles lived not far way from him. today there is nothing left of the cabin but the steeple. its all grown up with trees. miss sorensen
ReplyDeleteI passed by the castle in the early '70's with some friends on a round cape breton trip. We stopped to admire it and the wife of the builder was friendly and invited us in to look around and served us tea. She also told us the story although i cant remember all the details except that he died. It was a beautiful little castle with leaded glass windows. I believe it suffered some damage from locals..even then. I hope something is left and that i get a chance to round the cape again ...buy some fish and hike to Fishing Cove.
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