#bishop castle

[decayanya]

[rhinedottirau]

Bishop Castle near Rye, Colorado

[sewer-rat-dreaming]

Everyone, here is some photo spam of my recent visit to Bishop Castle. Built by one man on a mission to piss off Colorado regulators and OSHA, this beautiful spectacle is completely free to visit (on insistence from the builder, Jim Bishop), climb on, and marvel at. Jim Bishop recently passed away, but the landmark will remain open to the public. He was a bit of a character (to say the least), and not someone who I agreed with ideologically, but whoa damn could this guy build.

[huckleberryhal]

Bishop Castle in Rye, Colorado

[michael-massa-micon]

Bishop Castle - June 2023 Jim Bishop bought the land this “castle” stands on when he was only twelve years old. He built a small stone cabin there in his early twenties. Someone told him it looked like he was building a castle… so he did. His family had run an ornamental iron business for generations. He continued to make his living creating ornamental iron and he used his skills to create this huge castle-like thing. No one is sure whether he ever intended to live in it, but he continued working on it for fifty years until his death. He had his own sawmill to cut the beams and he hauled stone from all over his land and elsewhere. Every stone was set in place by hand. People starting stopping by to see it, so he put up a donation box. He never charged an admission fee and even put it in his will that no admission should ever by charged. Kathy couldn’t go inside. In fact, if it weren’t for a bunch of Veterans for Veterans bikers, she wouldn’t have even make it up the hill to the courtyard. I am posting nine images of the castle. The dragon actually breathes fire (a burner from a hot air balloon), but it didn’t while we were there. MWM

[hannahanahata]

[placesandpalaces]

Bishop Castle, San Isabel National Forest, Colorado by Jim Bishop

Bishop Castle is an "elaborate and intricate" one-man project named after its constructor, Jim Bishop, that has become a roadside attraction in central Colorado.  Bishop bought the land for the site for $450 when he was 15, and construction on what was originally intended to be a family project to build a cottage started in 1969. After Bishop surrounded the cottage with rocks, several neighbors noted that the structure looked something like a castle. Bishop took this into consideration and soon began building his castle. He worked on the castle for 40 years.

[fayeandknight]