Taste of history

Showing off their traditional styles at the Larnach Castle Winter Ball at the castle ballroom, on Friday night are (from left) Keziah Porthouse, 14, and her father Steve and their friends Connie Gullen and Brendan Mackay, all of Dunedin.

Larnach Castle sales and marketing manager Jo van der Linden said more than 100 tickets were sold to this year’s winter ball. The annual ball was now more than 50 years old.

Attendees dressed up in Victorian costumes, men sometimes wore kilts, and everyone experienced something akin to a Scottish ceilidh. There was live music, performed by the Dunedin Scottish Fiddle Orchestra, dinner, dancing, a "haggis ceremony", dessert and a hot toddy before guests were bussed back to the Dunedin Railway Station at the end of the night.

"It’s a magical evening", Ms van der Linden said. "This is a unique experience — for people to come and experience a castle as it was over 150 years ago when William Larnach was here."