Dunedin in Otago

Settled in 1848 by Free Church of Scotland worshippers, “Dunedin” means Edinburgh in Scots Gaelic, or Edwin’s Fort.  With the exception of the red light district, called The Devil’s Half Acre, Dunedin gleams with clean streets, gingerbread Victorians, prosperity and free parking. It’s built on several hills rolling between the Sound and the South Pacific Ocean. Here almost nothing is in Māori. They have a beautiful 1871 train station which hosts only tourist trains once or twice a day.

The University of Otago is architecturally split: older Neogothic Arts and Letters buildings and newer modern glass and cement Science buildings. Thanks to John Larkins Cheese Richardson, the Chancellor in 1868,  it was the first university in Australasia to admit women.

We have joined a tour led by Gregor Campbell called “Tales from Darkest Dunedin,” found on Viator. Gregor turned his hobby of digging up info on cemetery residents into a paying gig, driving a van of tourists around Dunedin while he tells us tales of bad hombres. I am pleased to report he was a good driver, good speaker, and  good tour guide.

The main tourist attraction is Larnach Castle, costing hundreds of thousands of pounds, and mostly finished in 1871. Its coat of arms shows two Scottish wildcats rampant. Its motto is “Sans Peur.”  William Larnach enjoyed good fortune as a banker and MP when the Gold Rush of 1861 changed Otago from sleepy to raucous. He was a director of mines while the gold flowed. The entrepreneurial Mr. Larnach spared no expense on fine woodworking. He had six children with his first wife and married twice more after her death at age 38. But when his fortunes changed and the money dried up in 1898, he shot himself in the head in his office in Wellington.  He died intestate. The scandal behind his death is what Gregor would tell us that we couldn’t hear from the current castle owners. Based on rumors at the time, Larnach’s third wife Constance was having an affair with her stepson Douglas. After William’s death, Constance went home to England and had a child. The remaining five children, as Kate the eldest died in her twenties, were left house-rich and cash-poor. They held an estate sale to get rid of the furnishings and sold Larnach castle. Donald shot himself in the head twelve years after his father’s death, in 1910. Freud popularized the term “Oedipal Complex” in 1910 as well. 

In its next chapter the castle became an Insane Asylum. In 1967, the current owners bought it for a song and began restoring its Victorian glory after they fixed the roof.  Now it is repurposed as a private tourist attraction and upscale event space. I completely understand why the owners hush up the scandal. Who would want to hold a wedding at a castle with such a sordid past? Secular wedding venues grow in popularity as the social media generation gets married and as churchgoers decline in numbers. So the castle owners, the Barkers (not barking mad), are riding two trends. The Barkers tell the story of the renovation, which thanks to HGTV most of us can relate to.  The debts, cruelty, adultery, betrayal, suicide and insanity less so. Suicide I can understand. But for a titan of industry like William Larnach, blessed with six children, why did he die intestate? I suspect more to the story.

I notice Olefin carpet and other practical, non- Victorian details.  Running tours and hosting events: it’s a living.