Abandoned Bannerman Castle On The Hudson River In New York City: A Photographic Tour

Nestled on Polepel Island in New York’s Hudson River, an amazing piece of history is slowly disappearing.

According to the New York Times, Bannerman Castle is a weapons fortress built by Scottish arms dealer Francis Bannerman in the early 20th century. In 1920, a gunpowder explosion occurred in the castle, and the castle was abandoned about 30 years later.

Subsequently, in the early 1990s, the Bannerman Castle Trust led efforts to restore the island’s structures and make it safe for public visits. It has been open since 2004 and open for tours since 2020.

In 2019, I took a private tour of the island before it was open to the public. Take a look at the ruined castle on the island of Polepel, which is being taken over by nature.

Welcome to Bannerman Castle, an abandoned fortress on the Hudson River in New York that I visited in 2019.

View of Bannerman Castle from the Hudson River.

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You can book a tour today on the Bannerman Castle website.

Bannerman Castle is located on Pollepel Island, about 60 miles north of New York City.

Map of the Hudson Valley and Long Island Sound region with pin labeled — Polepel Island is located on the Hudson River north of Manhattan.

Google Maps

The abandoned castle can be seen from the Metro-North Railroad’s Hudson Line. I took the train from Grand Central Station to Manitou Station.

To get to the castle, I took a cab from the Manitou train station to Donahue Memorial Park in the town of Cornwall, New York.

hudson river — The park is located on the west side of the Hudson River.

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There I met a tour guide from the Bannerman Castle Trust, the organization that oversees the conservation and maintenance of the castle.

I boarded the boat to the island at Donahue Memorial Park.

hudson river pier — A work boat on a public dock in Cornwall.

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Polepel Island can only be reached by boat. Two guides from the Bannerman Castle Trust met me at the pier.

I piled into the boat with my guide and a few volunteer gardeners working on landscaping on Polepel Island.

Twenty minutes later I arrived at the castle. Viewed from the pier, I think its beautiful yet solid walls make the building look almost functional.

Bannerman Castle ruins — North gate of Bannerman Castle on Pollepel Island.

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Starting from the pier, we climbed 72 stairs to reach the island.

But my tour guide told me I couldn’t go in – it wasn’t safe.

Enjoy the view of Bannerman Castle from the trail on the north side of Pollepel Island.

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My guide explained that the castle’s towers are supported by external beams supported by steel. Each section weighs 250 pounds.

But even with this support, there is still a risk that the walls will collapse. That’s why all visitors are required to stay at least 100 feet away from the castle.

Luckily, there are viewing platforms surrounding the castle in a picturesque location.

Accidental explosions and weather damage reduced Bannerman Castle, a former weapons storage fortress, to ruins.

Francis Bannerman VI, an arms dealer living in Brooklyn, purchased Polepel Island in 1900. According to the New York Times, he wanted a place outside the city to store his arsenal, so he built the fort and an attached port.

After Bannerman’s death in 1918, his son took over the company.

In 1920, a room filled with gunpowder exploded.

This broke the windows of the castle.

Forty-seven years later, the Bannerman family sold the island to the state of New York.

It eventually became part of the Hudson Highlands State Park Preserve, according to the park’s website.

In 1969, a fire destroyed much of the castle.

View of Bannerman Castle and its harbor ruins.

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Thereafter, Polepel Island was deemed unsafe by the State of New York and declared off-limits.

Then, in 1992, Neil Caplan, a resident of nearby Beacon, New York, established the Bannerman Castle Trust.

The organization raises funds to restore the islands; Kaplan is its executive director.

The trust opened the island to the public in 2004 in partnership with the New York Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation.

Today it is a theater, museum and historical site.

Although the main castle is inaccessible, the Trust has stabilized another building to serve as the residence of the Bannerman family. It is now the island’s visitor center.

The facade of the building also serves as the backdrop for the theater stage.

Inside, visitors can find information about the island’s past.

Unpretentious exhibits explain the history of the site and the construction of the castle. Drawings and documents were framed on the building’s dilapidated walls.

Visitors can also see preserved fixtures from the castle, such as this bathtub.

The center also has a gift shop selling art and T-shirts.

Although the Trust has restored parts of the castle since the 1990s, weather has still taken its toll on the structure in recent decades.

According to the Bannerman Castle Trust, one night in December 2009, much of the castle’s shell collapsed. Just a month later, more of the walls collapsed during a winter storm.

On my way back from the castle, the boat circled around the perimeter of the island.

From the water, we glimpsed other parts of the abandoned fortress, including its dilapidated port.

From a distance, it’s especially obvious how nature has taken over many parts of this mysterious history on the Hudson River.

Medieval architecture combined with overgrown trees and foliage make Bannerman Castle a place worth visiting up close.