Dundurn Castle - Grounds

Grounds

Dundurn Castle operates as a civic museum, and its grounds house other attractions. Dundurn Park and its associated green spaces are favourites for wedding portraits. The Cockpit Theatre occasionally housed outdoor events and dramas.

A large German artillery piece, booty from the First World War, was removed from the southeastern part of the park in the mid-1980s. Until about 1990, it housed an aviary which was moved to the Westdale neighbourhood. The former covered pavilion offered picnickers protection from the cold, but in the last few years a walled garden was put in its place. The gates at the front entrance of the park originally came over from England, but the stone pillars were cut from the Dundas mountain. In 1931, parts of the gates were removed and taken to the Chedoke Golf Club.

Dundurn Park has its own folly, just east of the castle. Living up to its purpose, it had confused some people who had considered it a theatre, a laundry, a boat-house, an office, a chapel for Sir Allan's Roman Catholic wife, or even a cockfighting ring. Urban legend has it that many underground tunnels were built, leading from the Castle to various parts of the estate and one of the entrances was through the folly.

Sir Allan Napier MacNab was originally buried in 1862 on the Dundurn Park grounds between Dundurn Castle and Castle Dean on the corner of Locke Street and Tecumseh Street. In 1909, his body was removed and taken to Holy Sepulchre Cemetery in west Hamilton. His grave was unmarked until 1967, when the Canadian Club of Hamilton placed a bench and grave marker.