10 Amazing Castles Built for Love!

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8. Layton Castle


Layton Castle in Utah was built for SPURNED love instead of romantic love. The story goes that :"A man and his wife lived somewhere else before the castle was built, but the wife "e was always being told by her mother that her husband would never amount to anything and that she should leave him and marry someone richer. After a time she did just that and her new husband never amounted to much."


She moved to Utah and built herself a lovely home. But soon after she was remarried, the first, spurned husband came into a great deal of wealth and became very successful. Out of pure spite, he built this castle up on the East...almost in her backyard! This way, he could look out and see all the houses on the way to the Great Salt Lake, including hers.


Every time she stood at the kitchen window, she saw her ex-husband's beautiful castle.
Maybe the moral is that Sometimes you should give a person a second chance.

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But there is also a love story behind this castle built for spurned love. Gary Willey was a man who one day met a beautiful dark haired lady named Lynda Roundy, and it was 'life at first sight'. The couple met, courted and traveled the globe, falling more and more in love. Filled with soft feelings, Gary vowed he would build her the most amazing home, including pools, tennis courts and a stable.
However, soon after construction began, Lynda lost her life to cancer. Despite this, the castle was completed and Gary dedicated the home to his love. In this sad alternative story, Layton Castle was built for love rather than spite.

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9. Craigdarroch Castle
Craigdarroch Castle was built in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. It was built by Scottish immigrant Robert Dunsmuir, who promised to build a new home for his wife Joan. He hired to architects to build it in 1887. Four months into the project, one of them died but the other carried on and finished building the castle. Robert himself died, unfortunately, in 1889, one year before the massive home was actually completed. The interior woodwork of the castle alone filled 5 railway cars from Chicago.

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The original grounds of the castle encompassed 28 acres. It takes 87 steps to reach the tower on the top level, but once you’ve reached it, the view is impressive: Victoria Harbor to the west, the Strait of Juan de Fuca to the south, the Olympic Mountains and the San Juan Islands to the east, as well as the city of Victoria itself. The castle is over 20,000 square feet, spread throughout 39 rooms on 4½ floors. It has 17 fireplaces.
The exterior is constructed of marble, granite, sandstone, terra cotta, and Vermont slate in the Romanesque/Chateauesque style. It is now a historical museum that attracted 150,000 yearly visitors, and has seen its share of Hollywood fame, supplying a set for movies such as Little Women (1994), Spooky House (2000) and Cats & Dogs (2001).

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10. Leeds Castle
And of course, there is the famous Leeds Castle, built near Kent, England. According to 'InfoBritain': “Leeds Castle was originally a Norman fortification,” but the castle has a “stronger association with love than war. One of the most romantic kings in history, Richard II, gave Leeds Castle as a gift to his adored wife Anne of Bohemia. Richard was a sensitive man, who aspired to peace in a warlike age. To escape constant power struggles waged by aggressive nobles, he would spend fleeting dreamy hours at Leeds Castle with Anne."
The chronicler Jean Froissart describes how he presented a richly illustrated book to Richard at Leeds Castle in 1395. The king, Froissart wrote, was delighted when told that the book was ‘about love.’ A first edition of Froissart’s Chronicles remains at the castle. It is heartening that a building originally created for war should have slowly turned into a extravagant gift for the ladies.”

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Leeds is a feminine castle, after Anne of Bohemia, it was owned byQueen Eleanor, Isabella of France (Kind Edward II's wife) and Margaret of France (King Edward III's wife). Years later, kind Henry V gave the castle as a gift to his wife Catherine de Valois.


The chapel shot on the left was built by King Edward I for the purpose of a daily Mass to be sung for his beloved wife Eleanor who died in 1290. Edward was a ruthless king, but he clearly loved Eleanor. It is fitting that evidence of this affection should be linked with Leeds Castle.