wilson castle

If you are ever in the Rutland, VT area, you must visit the Wilson Castle.Great history, architecture, a one of a kind treasure that the whole family will enjoy.Picture taking is allowed throughout the castle and staff will even give you a guided tour.They are currently restoring the property and welcome any donations.Each room is uniquely designed and furnished. If you are into castles, this is a must see.There are over a dozen fireplaces, items given to the family from great kings and leaders of the world. Beautiful stained glass windows, 4 organs, a coat of arms, and a beautiful patio with a wonderful view while swinging on the level swing. For more information, google their websiteyou will not be disappointed.

Great large house from the 1800's showing off the styles and tastes of the original owner. However, it needs a major face lift and some TLC, would be great if Vermont would assist the owners to keep the house as a historical site.Over all worth to see.

This castle is absolutely incredible! Wilson Castle was built in the mid 19th century and stands today as a magnificent part of history and an architectural masterpiece. It is beautifully furnished with original, interesting and unique antiques and art. The furnishings are the same ones that have been in the house for years (in some cases, a hundred years or more). The castle has 32 rooms and is set on 115 scenic acres. Unlike some museums and historic homes, this one really does have a comfortable feel. Photograpy is permitted (and there is a lot that is photo-worthy). The tour starts with a video overview in the library, that you watch while sitting on beautiful 100 year old chairs around a table just as old; the table's centerpiece is from the 17th century. Two floors of the castle are open, and you view them on a guided tour. Our tour guide, Shelia, was very informative, friendly, interesting, and affable. She did a great job of relaying the history of the home and pointing out the highlights of each room, as well as answering all of our questions. Every room is filled with amazing antiques, furnishings, stained glass, fireplaces, carved wood, art, and more suprises to admire. The tour was casual and not rushed. It was perfect for us to view and appreciate all of the unique beauty of the castle and its contents. Due to the castle's age, some needed repairs and renovations are underway. There is scaffolding on some exterior walls, but this does not really distract too much from seeing the castle, and does not affect the interior. It will be great to see the castle restored to its former glory sometime soon. It is a true gem hidden in Vermont's rolling hills... (and it is quite possibly haunted). We will definitely go back to this beautiful castle the next time we are in the area. If you're in the area, don't miss it ! It is EXCELLENT!!! ENJOY!!!

We were staying in Rutland and picked up a brochure at our hotel. Other reviews indicated that it was hard to find but we had no trouble. The road and parking lot were quite bumpy but the castle made it worth it. We were shown a video and then given a long tour by the owner of the castle. We were lucky that it was a quiet day. The furnishings inside are spectacular, especially since they are all original to the house. We have been to lots of castles which have been furnished with items from all over the place so this was special. The outside is still undergoing lots of work...in fact the whole castle is a work in progress. We would like to go back to see the progression in a few years.

My wife and I picked a beautiful sunny day to vist the castle. We have driven by many times and decided that it was now or never. This castle needs to be viewed through "hazy eyes" to appreciate what it once was and all the history associated with it. The owner and her staff were incredible! That being said the castle itself is in rough shape and I am being kind with this statement. The experience itself and the property are worth the visit before it's too late. I truely hope that the castle is restored to its former glory because this architectural masterpiece deserves more than to just crumble to dust.

Hello. I love Wilsons Castle. It has been many years since I stopped in but I always enjoyed it there. I grew up in Vermont and would stop in on my way to Saratoga Springs New York every summer. I now live in Virginia Beach and would love to come back up 4 a visit sometime. Such a beautiful state and the mountains r breath taking. I miss them!! :)

I love to see how they lived back then and it just amazes me how they preserve the things they do and try to keep it as it was when they were there...the quality of the furnishing were so differant then they are now! A must see...

We visited on July 10, 2014 just a day or two after a severe storm had passed through the area. The bumpiness of the entry to the parking area foreshadowed what was soon to follow. Although it was a beautiful day no one was visiting and, in fact, we were later told that possibly only one person had visited the day before! Our one on one "personalized" tour was the antithesis of what we have come to expect when compared to other stately home tours experienced both on this trip and others. Although our guide was pleasant we sometimes had to work to extract information about the house and its history. We can only guess that the lack of business and the overall condition of the house combined to make this a somewhat depressing job. Although some of the rooms on the first floor were OK in terms of content and presentation there were many areas upstairs and outside that were compromised by leaky roofs or crumbling facades. During the course of our questioning, we learned that the house was built with English brick that had not been treated to withstand New England winters and this was the reason for its somewhat dilapidated appearance. We also learned that this house had been vacant at one point for something like 20 years and eventually was purchased for back taxes by the grandfather of the current owner, I believe. His granddaughter, we fear, is on a mission (impossible) to resurrect this old 1850's mansion from its current condition and turn it into something that would warrant the price of the current admission. The reality is that to make this into a house worth visiting (for other than the Halloween Haunted House events that it also hosts) the cost in improvements will be a figure that ends in six zeros. I'm afraid that I could easily foresee this house becoming vacant again in the not too distant future and, if that is the case, our fear is that Wilson's Castle may soon disintegrate and no one will ever see it returned to it's full glory. My apologies for the frankness of this review - we sincerely mean no disrespect towards the owner and employees but my wife and I feel the truth does need to be told. Our prayers and sympathies go out to all who are involved!

For some reason, even though I have been to several other castles in other states, this one was the spookiest! We also drove by this attraction, as the sign is very small & the GPS is spooked too... so it keeps going ~ha ha! We just visited here in June 2014 & the parking lot was EMPTY at noon, so we thought this might be closed. Currently under renovation, our party of 5, slowly walked up a long drive way to this spooky house, My son went up the stairs & said hey the door is open! Yeah, that is about when I thought, now why are we here again? Anyway, we all stood in this rather dark & giant hallway entrance, a bit musty smelling, & no one was around?? Finally, our hostess shows up & said she was vacuuming upstairs and didn't hear anyone. I did try to leave at that point; because while we were waiting , looking around, there was a bunch of Very scary looking circus stuff in this hall entrance! Our hostess informed us that it was for an event that night. Also we found, that if you try to call here, you get connected to another business? Two people from our party of 5 got the UPS store? We asked our hostess about this, & she says with hesitation, UH ...yeah, we have been having some trouble with our phone lines! Okay... first you can't find this place & then you find out that there are no working phones! Okay, I guess since I was being OUT VOTED by my families need to see this spooky castle, I went on the tour. You first sit at a very old large table with leather chairs to watch a 10 minute presentation about the history of this castle. Then the hostess leads you around from room to room to room to room, ok, maybe this is sort of cool after all. We were looking at the most interesting stuff from around the world stored in all the different rooms.The enormous staircase had an organ at the top of the red carpet staircase, with stained glass windows, all mahogany carved rails, & woodwork, then an original pool table in the hallway upstairs right at the top. We were looking at that, when our daughter came running out of one of the bedrooms yelling ,One of the doors just opened all by itself! The hostess says is she kidding?? I said ,IDK I was standing right here with all of you! There was silence for a few seconds, like we all were waiting to hear footsteps or something. Is this part of the attraction, to get you scared!? Yikes. Anyway, now we all listened as our hostess says, I am not allowed to show you the THIRD floor, she tells us that she went up there .... just once & almost couldn't find her way out because there are so many rooms!! What?! All the other rooms are on the first two floors. What could all the other rooms be? Even the servants quarters were on the kitchen wing, up smaller stairs. Then on one of the cobweb staircases, Steeper & smaller, she told us that THOSE lead up to the rooms that she couldn't show us. Okay, NOW, my family loves this ghost tour! We had 2 in our party from Florida who took lots of pictures of all the cool stuff in this castle.They also thanked me, because there is nothing like this there in Fl, unless you visit the haunted mansion at Disney world! I am giving this 5 stars, because of the pure Spook factor that I got, that I NEVER got from any of the other castles that we have visited! I should mention the ticket price for Adults is about 12$ for children around 5 or 6$ Great views of the Vermont mountains!

We were so angry thinking our GPS was wrong but lo and behold we drove by Wilson's Castle three times before we saw it. When we realized we at the spot we felt cheated. First this does not really look much like a castle and secondly, it was being renovated and looked abandoned. It might be a good place for a ghost tour but for a scenic stop, skip it. The scene across the street was prettier.

I have lived in Vermont for my whole life about 9 miles away from Wilson's castle. People couldn't believe that I had never visited there! So when my boyfriend and I heard that they were inviting people to come and join a ghost hunt with the Vermont ghost hunters we were very excited. When we got there it was kind of just a whole mess of people standing around. We weren't sure who we were supposed to pay admission too and had no idea who was in charge or just a visitor! The tour was supposed to be 12 dollars and they charged us 10 (I'm guessing that was because they had already started the video describing the wonders of the castle)! The ghost hunters came in after the video to tell us about what they do, what we were in store for that evening. After they were done the tour guide took us through the building. It was so unorganized an cluttered that we were stuck in the back and could never hear any of the history the guide was talking about. We hoped that when the ghost hunting started that they would split the 30 or so people up Into smaller groups , but they split us up into 2 groups that were too large. Once we started the ghost hunting more peoe came after the parade and they all got added to our group giving us about 30 people! The rooms were not big enough so we ended up in the hallway for most of it! We decided that it was not worth our time and we left about 1 hour into the evening. Mt to mention there was a young man who was trying to sabotage the hunt and they didn't kick him out after multiple offenses! Unless they get there events more organized, I won't be going back there! It was really unfortunate because I had heard so many good things!

The mold was intense for those with allergies, but the old house and grounds were worth it (I think).

This was not worth the time we spent there. The tour guide was supposed to give us a tour but he never did offer to show us through the place.

After a memorable murder mystery event in August 2012 we could not wait to make the 2 1/2 hour trip from New York to attend another fabulous time at the castle. WRONG!!!! After numerous phone calls over a 3 week period we were finally able to purchase tickets for what was billed as the last Murder Mystery of the season and the Castle staff were "going all out" for this Halloween event. We arrived at 6:20 instead of the suggested 6:30pm and found several patrons already being instructed as to what can be expected. The tour guide was a no-show and a substitute was called in. Instead of a personal informational tour we were left watching a DVD informational video and then led thru a whirlwind tour of the rooms without any explanations or history given. Then the Manager/Director made the comment that some people present had not paid for the evening and it was time to settle up. after several accusations we were addressed as a group as how to act while we were there including the fact that there were many antiques and nice things in the Castle but to remember that "They are not Yours " so don't steal anything. Finger foods were to be served at 8pm but as of 8:45pm there was no food yet and we still did not know what the theme was. I spoke with the "tour guide" and mentioned we would like a refund and was told she did not blame us as the whole thing was a mess. the theme was changed at the last minute and had nothing to do with Halloween at all and everything was running behind as well as messed up. She went to the owner and they graciously wrote a check for our amount paid but before we left, the arrogant and loud Manager shouted across the room, "sir, are you the one who is not satisfied? I replied yes that it was not what we expected from our last visit. He told us that it was the same format and that "things happen" to explain the delays. Then as we were waiting for the other couple with us to get their coats, He shouts "what are waiting for? Do you need something else?" In my opinion the owner needs to get a grip on things and fire this loser Manager and hire someone with a little class and professionalism. If he continues to treat people like this I'm sure the Castle has a bleak future. We had such a good time our very first visit, but upon return we were insulted, berated, and treated very poorly by an arrogant, conceited,and unprofessional Manager. We will certainly never return unless its under new Management.

A hands on castle that is dog friendly! The castle is undergoing some cosmetic renovations outside but it is completely worth the admission to tour. The owner still lives there and allows you to walk through almost all the rooms and even let us play one of the organs.They also are dog friendly and allow well behaved, leashed dogs inside the castle and on the grounds. There's pictures of a doberman and shepherd on one of the mantles that have passed on.We spent about 2 hours touring. Check out the back area outside for a peek at the aviary. Creepy!