In December 2025, we were contacted by the production crew of Ugliest Homes in America HGTV. They initially contacted the realtor that helped us buy the castle, but she would not give them our contact information. She told them our house wasn't ugly and she also thought it was a scam. They reached out to the realtor that sold us the castle and he gave them our contact information. Several phone calls, many legal documents signed, loads of emails, and video interviews later,

We are often asked, "Why did we buy a castle?" According to some of our close friends and family, we are castle people and it was meant to be. For us, everything just fell into place. In April 2016, we were in Ben Lomond to meet a jeweler to resize a wedding band. The original jeweler that made the wedding band in 1997 had been in Boulder Creek, just 3 miles away, but he had since retired to Isle of Skye, Scotland. Our new jeweler was running late so we took some time to cru

There are two french doors in the castle and the glass panes of those doors are filled with hand-etched pictures and poems. There are two original french doors are on the main level of the castle. The panes of glass in the doors have etchings done by the builder of the castle, Robert Howden. They depict scenes from Scotland and have quotes from the poetry of Robert Burns and James Howden (1815-1892), who was Robert's father. We have heard stories that over the years some of

The seal of the castle with the date the castle was finished by Robert Howden. It is a depiction of the emblem for the town of Galashiels. It depicts two foxes climbing a plum tree, known as the Sour Plums (pronounced by Scots as soor plooms). It references an incident from 1337 when an English raiding party was slaughtered by the Scots as they were gathering plums from a tree in the area. Is it stucco or stone? Despite how the castle may look on the outside, it is completel

People have been fascinated with the castle in Ben Lomond for years and it has popped up on various history web sites and a couple of books. This book, published in 1974, mentions the castle. We have scanned the pages and uploaded them for your enjoyment.