RYE, Colorado — I first heard about Bishop Castle almost a year and a half into my tenure as a Denverite. My friends were planning to visit and one of them wanted to go to "that castle in the forest." The one "I went to when I was a kid visiting family in Colorado Springs."
At the time I shrugged it off: Everyone has places they want to go when they visit me here. I'm sure it's the same for virtually every Coloradan with out-of-state friends or family. (As a side note, this is in stark contrast when people would visit me in Florida and just wonder when we were hitting the beach)
The day finally came — this past Friday — when we piled into my car and hopped on Interstate 25 southbound toward Pueblo and the San Isabel National Forest. That's where Bishop Castle, which is free to the public, resides. Cheryl Preheim got an inside look at "a kingdom of one man's doing" back in 2016 for 9NEWS.
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Bishop Castle began as a teenager's vision while he was out mowing lawns in 1969. For $1,200 (with a $450 downpayment), Jim Bishop bought the land that would become a kingdom. You see, every brick, every plank — every curl in the ironwork — was done by Jim's hand.
Now seems like a good place to drop the photo gallery in so you can get an idea of the look of this place. I didn't visit intending to write this or make a gallery, so I did my best there...
PHOTOS | Bishop Castle survived 2018's fire and is as gorgeous as ever
Looking through the pictures, a couple of things are apparent. First off, the structure is impressive (the dang thing was built by the bare hands of a single man). Second off, there's a dragon head. Third off, you're almost forced to wonder what kind of man makes it his life's work to build such a thing?
There's a word for the Jim Bishops of the world: enigmatic. But he does his best to tear down the walls of mystery for anyone as they enter. Here's the attraction's website.
The Bishops — Jim, the builder, and his wife, Phoebe, who, up until her death last year was the money handler — have made their kingdom free to rich and poor alike. They explain in handwritten black text on a large white sign that you enter at your own risk and, if you don't believe in the Bishops' right to free speech or their right to build a castle without any kind of buildings codes, you can leave (or you're considered trespassing).
The place recently survived a fire (not it's first) and is rebuilding. The Bishops accept donations and have a gift shop (I had to hop across wooden pallets to get there from the front because of the dirt and recent rains). It has a distinct playground mixed with an Alice In Wonderland vibe.
The Bishops weren't home when we were there this weekend. It was me and my two friends, a young boy and his mother, and two middle-aged men. We had the place to ourselves.
How it feels to climb all over a handmade castle
There is no way to visit it and not be struck by the incredible story. The proud builder, the majestic building — and the drive. It's about three hours from Denver. So be ready for that. The castle is about 20 minutes from Colorado City along State Highway 165. We went the south-of-Pueblo route for some more sightseeing.
While I've been waxing corny about how incredible the castle's appearance is, there's something I need to bring up that I know will make the owner of the castle irritated: being atop the battlements made me say a small thankful prayer to building codes.
Because oh. My. GOD. Is the castle kind of terrifying. Like, it's a cool idea when you hear it in your head: "a man has spent the last half-century building a castle alone in the mountains with his bare hands."
But, as Jim Bishop told Cheryl Preheim back in 2016: he just builds. He doesn't measure.
The castle... feels that way. And I don't mean to take a stand. I know there's a lot of heated politics going on for those near the castle and for many Coloradans. I am not here to say he shouldn't be allowed to build it or he should.
I don't know if my sudden love of building and safety codes was brought on by my previously-undiagnosed, rapid-onset bout of acrophobia (fear of heights) or by the sign that read "don't shake, structure may collapse". I don't know if I was so nervous while along the cast metal walkway attached 30-feet up along the outside because I hadn't walked on anything like that before or because it kind of gave way under my feet. I'm not sure if I was so scared headed up the south tower because it was such a tight space or because I could see that the steps I was about to use were triangle-cut stones jutting out a foot from the wall.
My fear of swaying bridges high in the air did not go away after childhood, I can attest to that.
I'm sure a lot of things went into my beating heartbeat and use of the railing like a security blanket. I was so tense going up and down the spiral staircase that I woke up the next day and my thighs were killing me. That's literally just my experience. And I had a blast.
There's a lot more to the castle (I couldn't spoil it all), and if you haven't gone, or you haven't gone in a while, well, the weather's getting really nice.
BISHOP CASTLE VERSUS CASTLES FROM HISTORY
In trying to help others understand the honest-to-goodness majesty of the castle, I thought I'd take a look at how Bishop Castle's features stack up against common castle features from history.
First, most castles used to have motte-and-baileys (at least the ones in England — and that's where we are grounding our study for arbitrary reasons). The "motte" was usually an artificial hill the castle would stand upon. The "bailey" or ward could be thought of as a "fortified enclosure" (the area inside the walls but outside the keep).
So how does Bishop Castle stack up against that? Well, it's built at the crest of two hills. It is not built upon an artificial hill. So, no real motte. However, being in the Colorado mountains, there's little need for a motte.
There's also no wall, so no bailey area either.
Onto the next feature! A keep. We're talking the main building where the lord or lady resides with other outer buildings nearby.
Lo and behold: this Colorado castle definitely has a keep. Is it at all defensible? With over 20-foot floor to ceiling windows... no. It's not. So yes to the fact that Bishop Castle has a keep, no to it being all that protective.
A curtain wall could be viewed as an "outer bailey." Where a bailey is an area enclosure with walls, a curtain wall is usually an outer wall between the outside moat and the bailey. It allowed for more defense. There is no such thing at Bishop Castle.
But there is a gatehouse, kind of. There's no wall, so a gatehouse in the traditional sense of "an opening to the bailey of a castle" doesn't really apply here... but it ticks all the other boxes. There is a structure, raised over a walkway instead of a moat, that sits at the entrance and oversees it. After going inside the "gatehouse," it appears as if it's an extra cabin for Bishop Castle.
The place has no moat, but instead dirt pathways around it that get muddy when it rains.
The last — and most interesting, at least in this writer's humble opinion — are the battlements. The flair, if you will. There are things added in to defense like loopholes (slits in walls and towers that allow arrows to be shot through), barbicans (extra fortifications to a gatehouse), crenellations (the alternating tall and short stones atop castle walls — think of the scene in Monty Python's Holy Grail when the French soldier is shouting "I fart in your general direction" at Sir Richard, King of the Britons. He's standing between the crenellations of the wall).
Bishop Castle has a lot of flair. A lot of it may not be all that practical were a son of a silly person trying to invade you, but they're immaculate nonetheless. From the bells in the north tower to the stained glass window in the lower level, there are so many things to catch your eye. That's not even mentioning the silver dragon overlooking the land.
Also, in true castle fashion, there were no wires or electricity (that I could see).
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