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Many Victorians will recognize the iconic landmarks of the Gonzales Heights Observatory and Craigdarroch Castle, but few are likely to be aware of their common history.

Daily weather forecasts for Victoria and Southern British Columbia first began on November 1, 1898 under the direction of meteorologist Edmund Baynes Reed who was joined later by assistant observer and forecaster Francis Napier Denison. They were also responsible for taking readings of the recently installed Milne seismograph, the first seismograph in British Columbia and one of the first routinely operated instruments of its kind in the world.

Baynes Reed died in 1916, and Francis Napier Denison took over as Director of the newly constructed Gonzales Hill Meteorological Observatory of which he had played a prominent role in designing. Numerous papers and articles on weather patterns and seismic observations were published by Denison to scientific journals and societies throughout North America and the

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It’s been 11 years since Giggling Iguana Productions first started their site specific Halloween offerings at Craigdarroch Castle. In the past decade, audiences have seen the horrors of “Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde”, been assaulted by Martians in “The War of the Worlds”, met a young man who thought “I Might be Edgar Allen Poe”, and gazed upon “The Picture of Dorian Gray.” Each year audiences have experienced a unique site-specific production
using the magnificent interiors and grounds of Craigdarroch as the setting for these tales of mystery, horror and imagination.

This year,

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Craigdarroch was built between 1887-1890 for Robert Dunsmuir, a Scottish immigrant who made his fortune from Vancouver Island coal.

This legendary Victorian mansion, built on a hill overlooking the City of Victoria (Craigdarroch means “rocky, oak place” in Gaelic) announced to the world that Robert Dunsmuir was the richest and most important man in Western Canada. He died in 1889 leaving his entire estate to his wife Joan who lived in the Castle until her death in 1908. The immense fortune of the Dunsmuir family is reflected in the four floors of exquisite stained glass windows, intricate woodwork and fabulous Victorian era furnishings.

Once you’ve entered the circular room at the main entrance and paid your