There have been reported sightings of cranky spirits, touches, pushing and other paranormal activity at the castle over the decades, so it is not surprising contractors are gingerly removing the compromised tower floor and the slate roof tiles from the south bedroom.
Larnach Castle director Norcombe Barker said the work aimed to fix leaks in the roof, and the contractors were likely to uncover a few "ghosts" along the way — just not the kind of ghosts that tourists might expect.
"Our problem is, we don’t know what we’re going to find when we pull the tower floor up and the roofing tiles.
"There may be much more damage than we were expecting.
"They may find a few ghosts back there, indeed."
He said scaffolding had been put up around the castle at "quite a substantial cost", so while it was up, the contractors would also do some painting and repointing.
"Some of the stonework has corroded, especially on the north side of the building, because the salt air hits the stone and crystallises it.
"The pointing between the stones is stronger than the stone, so it just ends up channelling water inside.
"We’re doing everything in order by starting from the outside, because you can’t really repair some rooms inside until you’ve stopped the reason why they are deteriorating.
"Once we do this job, it will be the first time since we bought the castle in 1967 that it will be watertight."
Mr Barker said the work was expected to cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, but it needed to be done so that the castle would remain in good condition for the decades to come.
"That’s essentially what the castle’s mission is and that’s what the tourists pay for — the restoration of the building."
It was hoped the work would be completed in mid-August.
