Craigdarroch Castle became a museum in 1979. The tour is fascinating. Many of the estate’s 39 rooms are elegantly appointed with late-19th century furnishings, artwork, 47 stained-glass windows and household items befitting an aristocrat. There are also family portraits around, as if Mrs. Joan Dunsmuir and her three daughters still lived here. The Breakfast Room is a sample of their lavish Victorian lifestyle. Most of the pieces displayed here – including the Wild Rose dinnerware, the hand-cut cruet set plus the silver tea and coffee servers – were the height of elegance when created in the late 1800s.
