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Originally Posted by LSyd
nice tour. reminds me of Mountain Brook in Birmingham.
what's the story behind this one?
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The Hermitage has a lot of stories surrounding it.
The original Hermitage was built in the 1830s. It is said that the second owner was an English officer who had fought in the Greek War or Independence. He married the daughter of the Governor of an Aegean island and together with her niece, moved into the Hermitage. The coachman they hired fell in love with the niece. When he was rejected as a suitor by the family, he hanged himself at the Hermitage.
George Gordon Browne Leith, the second son of a Scottish Baronet, bought the Hermitage in 1853. Leith had the current house (whose ruins are seen in the picture) built in 1855 as a summer residence. It was a large stone mansion with several outbuildings and a gatehouse.
Leith's daughter, Eleanor Alma Dick Lauder, later purchased the house. She was an eccentric who lived alone in the home she grew up in. The house was destroyed by a fire in 1934. A small house was built in the ruins. Lauder lived there until her death in 1942.
The ruins of the Hermitage are in the Dundas Valley Conservation Area and are managed by the Hamilton Conservation Authority. The gatehouse now serves as a museum.
The Hermitage is said to be haunted and is popular with ghost hunters.