A self-guided walk through a Victorian-style castle can begin with a firefighter exhibit and end near a museum devoted to the Pikes Peak race. In between are staircases, corridors, old wood, detailed doors and windows, and rooms that make a visitor slow down to inspect the odd corners.
This is a museum visit with more than one possible pace. You can come for the architecture and the stories attached to the building, or turn the outing into a longer occasion with high tea in the Queen's Parlour Tea Room, a browse through the gift shop, and a little time spent studying the castle's curated collections.
A castle built for looking closely
The building's Victorian character is not confined to one grand room. Details appear in the infrastructure as well as the decoration: doors, windows, stairways, woodwork and the passageways that connect the different levels. The castle has enough architectural texture to keep the tour from becoming a simple sequence of display cases.
At the entrance, visitors receive an introduction to the building along with directions and printed material for the route. From there, the tour unfolds at your own speed through selected rooms and exhibits. The written information supplies historical context without requiring everyone to move through the castle as a group.
The route does not open every room in the building, but it offers a good sampling of the place's changing uses and individual spaces. A military room and servant corridors are among the areas that give the castle a more lived-in, behind-the-scenes dimension.
Stories in the walls
The castle is as interested in its own peculiarities as it is in broad Victorian history. One notable curiosity involves sections of the building's original wallpaper that contain arsenic, an unnerving little fact from an era when decorative choices could come with hazards nobody wanted on the wallpaper label.
Elsewhere, the rooms are furnished and arranged with period-minded details and collectibles that invite a closer look. The effect comes from accumulation: an object in a case, a piece of woodwork, an old-fashioned furnishing, a turn in the staircase, another room with a different purpose.
Restoration and preservation work are ongoing as the historic interiors are maintained. That context is worth keeping in mind during the visit; this is a large old building being cared for over time, not a newly built imitation of one.
From fire engines to Pikes Peak
The museum's displays keep the tour from being solely an architectural exercise. Near the beginning, the firefighter exhibit introduces a different strand of local and practical history, adding a change of subject before the tour settles into the castle's rooms.
Near the end, the Pikes Peak race museum brings in another distinctive regional note. It makes for an unexpected finish after the Victorian corridors, and it gives car-minded visitors something especially concrete to linger over.
High tea in the Queen's Parlour
The Queen's Parlour Tea Room turns a museum stop into a proper afternoon engagement. Its high tea is served as a four-course meal, moving through scones, savory bites, tea and dessert rather than treating tea as a quick drink before heading back out the door.
An extensive tea list provides plenty to consider, including specially described selections that can be shared as a duo of flavors. There are also unusual alcoholic and nonalcoholic drinks for guests who want something beyond the teapot.
The room's setting keeps the service tied to the rest of the castle. Historical stories and hospitable table service add a sense of occasion, while the castle surroundings do much of the decorating work. At some teas, guests may even be invited to borrow a fancy hat from the tea room's collection.
Themed treats with a sense of play
Special tea parties and themed events give the kitchen room to be playful. A Harry Potter-themed tea, for example, built an entire menu around references that were recognizably whimsical without abandoning the formal tea structure.
That spread included cold soup, avocado bread shaped like a slug, pumpernickel fashioned as the Monster Book of Monsters, and a cauldron cake pop. Dessert continued the theme with a pumpkin letter, a chocolate frog truffle and a butterbeer ice-cream cup.
Those themed menus and decorations change with the event, so they are not a year-round promise. The regular high-tea format is the steadier reason to plan a visit, while the special events offer an extra excuse for a birthday, family gathering or costume-friendly afternoon.
Small things to take home
The gift shop is well suited to the after-tour drift, when visitors have seen enough rooms to be in the mood for a small souvenir. Custom tea blends are the obvious carry-home choice after a tea service, but the shelves also include old-fashioned candy, toys, jewelry, trinkets and collectible Christmas ornaments.
During the holiday season, the castle takes on another layer of decoration with Christmas displays. The ornaments in the shop make a natural companion to that seasonal presentation, especially for visitors who enjoy collecting a little evidence of their travels for the tree.
Planning the visit
The museum route involves walking through corridors and multiple levels of the building, with several staircases along the way. It is a visit best taken at a comfortable pace rather than hurried from room to room.
High tea and themed tea events need advance planning and reservations. Many people pair tea with the tour, before or after exploring, and the combination can easily turn a short history stop into a longer afternoon.
Parking is behind and above the castle and can take a little attention to locate and navigate. Once inside, the printed route materials make it easier to focus on the building's many rooms instead of wondering where to go next.