Drawn-out efforts to save a group of historic facades in Princes St have failed. "Demolition by neglect" also threatens other central city buildings.
Character houses in George St — an underestimated strip of heritage gems — are being lost. The Scribes bookshop building in North Dunedin was demolished in 2022 and two University of Otago wooden villas are due to be pulled down.
The heritage ambience of Dunedin, as has been well recognised, is about far more than just the stars of the firmament — the likes of the University Clocktower Building, the railway station, Larnach Castle, First Church et al.
Now, finally, 26 years after the Cargill’s Castle Trust was formed, the ruins of the castle are about to be stabilised.
The Dunedin City Council has granted building consent to the trust to begin stage 1 of a development that will eventually turn the building into a tourist attraction.
Steel bands are to be placed around the top of the wall to stabilise and strengthen the building. That will be followed by stage 2, which includes floors, stairways and viewing platforms and filling in cracks in walls.
Interpretation plaques will explain the historical and cultural values of the site.
The project is expected to cost up to $2 million, and fundraising is continuing. Work is due to start later this year.
By buying the site, the trust saved it in the first instance. It has had the site fenced and wants walking access from the Highgrove subdivision in place soon.
Further down the track, comes landscaping and developing the grounds to enhance the castle and its coastal location as a clifftop park.
Eventually the trust, in conjunction with the city council’s track policy and strategy, would like to support the establishment of a path from the Esplanade in St Clair to Blackhead.
How dramatic that would be, including the link to the Tunnel Beach walk, one of the most popular in Dunedin for locals and tourists.
The building itself is far too far gone to be restored. In any event, there is value in ruins and the story they tell. Part of the attraction of Cargill’s Castle is the building, part is the setting and part is that tale.
The castle was completed in 1877 for Edward Cargill, the seventh son of one of the key founders of the Dunedin settlement, Captain William Cargill.
E.B. Cargill became a prominent merchant and was elected Dunedin mayor in 1898.
The castle was gutted by fire in 1892 and a ballroom was added (demolished in 1996). A few owners later, in the 1930s and 1940s, it housed the Castle Cabaret Club, home to popular dances and music. The trust reports it also became notable for its "debauchery".
Police raids "reportedly found the clientele under the influence of liquor which they purchased from a secret room beside the kitchen".
The owner recovered from a series illness in 1944 and, thanking what he saw as divine intervention, then converted the castle into an evangelical worship centre.
The cabaret later restarted briefly but by the late 1950s it closed for good.
The trust’s vision is promising. The location, the ruins themselves and their story would be a significant attraction to add to Dunedin’s list.
The trustees, like those of several other important trusts around the city, have shown enthusiasm, patience, persistence and determination. They should be acknowledged and thanked as they, after delays, embark on the next stages of the vision.
