Under werewolf control[]
Home of Lord Maccon's pack before they relocate to London. The castle itself is a Georgian manor house with multiple stories and mismatched flying buttresses. The building itself is described as ugly and impossibly constructed. It contains 14 or more bedrooms, a number of receiving parlors, several towers, and a large set of dungeons.
It is situated a two-hour carriage ride outside of London, near Barking. Gail did not base this on a real house, but she imagines it is in the vicinity of what is now Barking Abby School.
Under vampire control[]
The previous Westminster Hive makes some changes to the castle in order to encourage society from London to visit. They have a train stop built on the grounds. From this stop, visitors can take a small, private, engineer-less train to the castle itself. For the hive's protection, their home no longer a secret, the road to the castle is removed and this small train is the only way to approach the grounds.
Countess Nadasdy tries to improve the aesthetics of the castle, but her efforts do not prove very effective. The grounds, on the other hand, are turned into a beautiful set of gardens by the time of Prudence.
Quotes[]
- “She’d had it painted, and planted, and primped, and festooned, and draped to within an inch of its very long life. But it was asking too much of the poor thing. The result was something akin to dressing a bulldog up like an opera dancer. Underneath the tulle, it was still a bowlegged bulldog.” (Timeless, Chapter Three)
Extras[]
Gail posted deleted scenes from Changeless which included this never published description of Woolsey Castle. "The most scandalous thing about Woolsey Castle was not that it housed a pack of werewolves. After all, only the best counties could boast such an eccentricity. Nor was it the fact that it boasted eight flying buttresses – an architecturally immodest choice. No, the most scandalous thing about Woolsey Castle was that there was a bedroom, and sometimes several, on every single level, even the first. The original owner was a bit of an eccentric, in the "if he had not had money he would have been called insane" kind of way. Woolsey was no castle, not really. It was instead a modern manor house made to look like a castle with stone facings, an excessive number of haphazardly applied turrets, crenelated battlements, extensive dungeons, and the aforementioned buttresses."