After drying off in the sun we decided to make our way towards Sam Lord's Castle. I'll be honest, I really had no idea where it was, but luckily we passed a lime (people hanging out) and they pointed us on our way. One of the guys actually gave us a bit of a tour of the grounds.
According to legends, Sam Lord, a buccaneer, would hang lights in the tall coconut trees on his property to trick incoming ships into thinking it was the port. They would wreck their ships on the reefs just off shore and Sam would plunder the ships. He made his fortune and built an amazing mansion. The mansion was eventually turned into a hotel and resort. After some financial issues, the castle sat empty and was bought by CLICO. They claimed they would restore it to its original glory, however it sat empty for many more years and ended up being burnt (almost) to the ground in 2010.
And now it looks like this ...
The castle is perched behind this pretty little beach which I'm sure would have been dotted with umbrellas and sun chairs back in the day. Now it's a pretty quiet beach that the locals try to hide from tourists.
It was hauntingly beautiful. I'm sure Sam would be sad to see his home in this condition.
Steph and I caught the bus back into town, only stopping to find pudding and souse along the way. We had another early wake up call Sunday and were pretty toast (literally for Steph) from a day in the sun so we had dinner at home and hit the hay early.
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