Imaginary Places

by Grobius Shortling

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The Imaginary Castle Contest

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This author has been inventing imaginary places all his life, starting as soon as he could hold a crayon or pencil. In 1996, he got his first home computer and has not stopped playing with this new toy since. Several of these imaginary compositions were found in file folders that have been kept around for ages, others were written specifically for the Internet. Hope you enjoy them. -- G.S.

Castle aficionados all have their own favorites, but there is often ambiguity about that -- some offering more in the way of picturesqueness, others in historical interest, still others in fortification techniques. Well, why not design your own ideal castle project that combines all of the aspects that you would find of interest if such a place existed? My challenge to you, if this appeals to you, is to submit your own "imaginary" castle to this site.

You have to be a compulsive sort of person to do this sort of thing, but it is a lot of fun, rather like making balsa model airplanes from scratch, or making a quilt or tapestry. In a way, if you do it right, it combines the mental skills of architecture and historical fiction research.

There are no rules to this project, apart from the fact that I am the sole judge of what is fit!

-- Grobius Shortling, June 2002.

New! Optipal House (New Year's Day 2005)
Salamandra Tower (July 2005)
Cragshaw Castle (Sept. 2005)

A Sample:

"Poltruvanel Castle (Cornwall) [View] An ancient hill fort of the Celts in pre-Roman days that was reconstituted in the so-called dark ages around the time of King Arthur. It was supposedly the site of the Virgin Castle of the Galahad legends, where he had a bit of trouble maintaining his holiness while searching for the Holy Grail and trying to keep his virtue. Ralph of St. Malo was given this castle by William the Conqueror in 1083 and built a motte-and-bailey on the site. It never became an important fortress in a military sense, although it was the center of a large manorial estate and was noted for its fine ashlar walls and kitchen accommodations in the Tudor period. Oliver Cromwell's troops sacked and burned it, and it never recovered from that, most of its stone having been stolen over the centuries since then to repair barns, etc. There is nothing left to see now except the earthwork embankments and the lines of the old curtains walls, at most chest-high, which now enclose farmyards. (One side of the farmhouse includes a truncated portion of the gatehouse tower, and the remains of the Celtic rath are used as a sheep pound. What is left of the kitchen range is now a popular pub, called "The Wholly Virgin," which is noted for its shepherd's pies and hard cider, brewed locally in the old castle stables.) Want to see a ground plan? And click here for the pub."

If you would like to enter this contest, which expires on the 31st of December 1999, please send your submission to GrobiusShortling.

July 2001: There were no winners in this contest, so it will remain open for as long as this website exists. Just send submissions, please! Don't be ashamed if you think it's crappy -- just as long as it's a castle.

July 2004: Is imagination dead? Hardly any submissions have been received, although the web page has been viewed a few times. As a spur, have a look at this sample entry by Arthur Poggis: My Ideal Castle, or see a miscellaneous collection of my own 'dream' towers.

Oct 2005: Here is a castle ready-made for you. You can write your own description and history for it (and change the name, date, and location if you wish). View it here. If you do a write-up, please e-mail it to me.

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Here are the contestants

Anonkrankie Castle, Nova Scotia -- A Victorian erection now part of a golf country club
Aspidistra Castle, Denver Colorado -- Pauline Ponsonby, a close friend of Molly "Unsinkable" Brown, and the rich widow of a silver miner, built this dream house, not far from the notorious Columbine High School (but it was all open country then)
Bifurk Gate, Fenton-on-the-Marsh -- An unusual double gate tower shared by castle and town, now a miniature wax museum
Birdlip Castle, Cotswolds -- Another Robber Baron's Castle
Blaumannbourg Castle, Netherlands -- A German Industrialist's country retreat, mid-19th-Century tower house
Caer Afanc -- A web site arranged as a 'virtual castle' (this isn't in the contest category either, but that's why the rules were expanded to include this type of thing)
Chatterham Prison, Lincolnshire -- Site of John Dickson Carr's mystery novel Hag's Nook
Cragshaw Castle, Cape Town, South Africa -- Nostalgic construction by a rich expatriate Welshman
Fisher's Roost -- A tiny (really tiny) tower house on a lake in the Catskill Mountains of Sullivan County NY
FitzFirbolg Castle, County Cork -- An ancient Norman fortress modernized by a German entrepreneur
Gloveburgh -- An old Saxon Burgh, with town walls and castle, in North Yorkshire
Goblin Hall, Cumberland -- A bibliophile's home near Cockermouth
Gwernogle Castle, Wales -- a.k.a. CASTELL NANT-Y-GOF BWLCH
Lesser Iveagh Castle, Caithness -- A Seventeenth Century Scottish Castle on the North Sea
Lumpkin Castle, Tarreytown, New York -- One of the famous Hudson River 'baronial castles'
Marshmount Castle -- The first and best of the Grobius Shortling imaginary castles.
Odin's Castle of Dreams and Legends -- the ultimate Imaginary Castle, although not strictly in the category of the contest
Optipal House -- An eccentric mansion near Whitby in Yorkshire
Petit Bastille, Cumbria -- An old Borders 'bastle house' renovated as a country retreat
Poggis Castle -- An idealized castle
Poltruvanel (also see above)
Salamandra Tower -- A tower house in Maine
Thornhaven Castle -- A 17th Century Gothic 'folly' near Hereford
Tregarnet Hall -- A late 19th-Century Jacobean manor near Falmouth in Cornwall
Upper Nutsthorpe Castle -- Near Stoke-on-Trent, not a place people visit much (except pottery fans), but quite interesting for its Victorian steeple
The Witches' Academy, Farnish -- After Hogwart's, the most famous academic institution for witches in Britain

Note: If you like Imaginary Countries, with lots of castles, please visit the web site about Estalia.

Application to The Imaginary Castles Contest
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