Great Castles of Ohio revisited
A couple months ago, I made the claim that Great Castles of Ohio existed. Now, I want to revisit that topic and begin to produce the goods before you lose faith. So, in honor of the Olympic Games that we are NOT going to watch this summer, I am going to award the 3 medals for the Great Castles of Ohio. In this post, we will be awarding the bronze medal. On the podium of Great Castles of Ohio, I give you the Bronze Medalist…SQUIRES CASTLE.
Carol and the Castle 
Squires Castle (aka Feargus’ gatehouse)
Squires Castle is part of the Cleveland Metroparks properties and is located in Willoughby Hills, Ohio. In the late 1800s, Feargus Squire (some big shot in the Standard Oil Company) purchased around 500 acres with the intention of creating a great English estate. The first building needed for his great English estate was the gatekeeper’s house. Obviously, if you are going to have the best English manor on the block, you need a formidable gatehouse to keep out the riff-raff. Well, you probably guessed it. Feargus only completed the the gatehouse. So, the Bronze Medal for Great Castles of Ohio goes to Feargus’ gatehouse, now known as Squires Castle.
No functioning amenities in the castle. Carol would call this “camping”…which we do not do 
But, there are good windows for the archers. 
And, Feargus never mowed this lawn.
After the completion of the gatehouse, Feargus ran into a variety of problems with labor and material. As a result, Feargus never built the spectacular manor house…or anything else on this site. Instead, he used the gatehouse as a pseudo summer retreat until selling it in 1922. Eventually, the Cleveland parks bought the property. The property went through a variety of conditions over the decades. The castle used to have nice stain glass windows and more of a second floor. But, as I said, the place has seen some tough times. There is not much left of the place beyond the shell of the castle. But, the doors are always open (actually there are no doors). So, if you want to walk around a small castle, this is the place.
The slope was much steeper than it looked. 
Fording the creek on the way to the castle.
Additionally, the land around the castle is nicely wooded with plenty of terrain for meaningful hikes. As I mentioned, you can make a visit to Squires Castle into a nice half day event. You can hike the trails, visit the castle, and have a picnic lunch on the grounds. Again, I give you Squires Castle. The Bronze Medalist in the category of Great Castles of Ohio. PT
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