Bannerman Castle Pollepel Island ruin
— — the castle the river keeps.
Not only on a wall.
“A Scottish-style arsenal on a small island in the Hudson, built between 1901 and 1918 by Francis Bannerman the sixth to hold his surplus military stock. Half the building came down in a 1969 fire and the rest has been weathering quietly since. Train passengers on the Hudson Line still look up from their windows when the island slides into view. from the studio
Bannerman Castle Pollepel Island ruin, on ceramic.
Each tile is finished by hand in our Knoxville studio. Artwork is slowly infused into the ceramic surface under high heat and pressure, and rests beneath a thin glossy finish. The colour lives in the surface, not on top of it.
Pick any four 4-inch tiles — National Parks you've been to, a Smokies set, the four seasons of one place. $ for a set of , cork-backed, ready to live on the table.
The place, in three passes.
Pollepel Island sits about a thousand feet off the east bank of the Hudson, roughly fifty miles north of Manhattan and a short run downriver from Beacon. The island runs about six and a half acres, low and rocky, hemmed by the Hudson Highlands on both shores. Francis Bannerman the sixth, a New York City military-surplus dealer of Scottish descent, bought it in 1900 and spent the next eighteen years raising a Scottish-baronial arsenal on its high ground, with a residence on the slope below.
The walls are brick and concrete faced with mortar carved while wet to read as cut stone. Bannerman designed the elevations himself, with stepped gables and corner turrets that echoed the family seat in Dundee. A powder explosion in 1920 took out a section of wall. The arsenal stood until August 1969, when a fire gutted the interior and left the silhouette that visitors recognise today. A further collapse in late 2009 dropped portions of the east and south walls, and the Bannerman Castle Trust now works with New York State Parks to stabilise what remains.
The island is open only by guided tour, generally from May through October. The Bannerman Castle Trust runs boat tours from Beacon and Newburgh and guided kayak trips for stronger paddlers. There is no unguided access, no overnight stay, and no swimming from the island. Tours land at a small dock, climb a graded path to the residence terrace, and walk the perimeter of the arsenal ruin. The Trust also stages summer concerts and theatre performances on the island, with ferry service from the Beacon waterfront. Tickets sell out in advance during peak weekends.