- An abandoned castle deep in the Coromandel has hit the market for sale.
- The property was the work of Wellington friends artist Frank Davis and architect Sir Ian Athfield.
- Davis’s family describes the property as a “very personal place”.
The late Frank Davis was a respected New Zealand painter and the late Sir Ian Athfield was a renowned architect known for his bold designs.
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The Wellington-based pair were friends and at some point they decided to build a castle in the bush in the Coromandel, accessed only by a long and windy dirt road.
The castle – which was never completed but boasts a Rapunzel turret and comes with detailed plans – has hit the market and is looking for a buyer with $720,000-plus to spend.
Listing agents Judy Rooney and Becks Greenhill, from Trinity Real Estate, told OneRoof Davis bought the 4.22-hectare property in the mid-1960s, but that it had been abandoned for 10 or more years.
The property is half-built, but the agents told OneRoof what was completed is good quality. Photo / Supplied
The Castle boasts some of Sir Ian Athfield's signature design features. Photo / Supplied
The property was being sold as is, but what had been built and still there was quality, they said.
When Sir Ian died in 2015, the New Zealand Herald ran an obituary, describing him as someone who went into battle for his designs.
At a packed memorial service, prominent architects and Kiwi actor Sam Neill, a close friend, paid tribute.
Neill said: “Ath was big and bold and exuberant – he was larger than life, but there was always something humble and vulnerable about Ath ... and above all, he was lovable.”
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Sir Ian’s work was described by fellow architect and friend Roger Walker as likely to one day be regarded as having the same influence on Wellington as Frank Lloyd Wright’s work had on Chicago. Former mayor Celia Wade-Brown said Sir Ian brought honour to the city and changed the face and function of much of Wellington.
The agents said the build at 489 Tuateawa Road had stopped after Davis’s death in the 1980s. One of his daughters had contacted them to highlight the “personal connection between Ath and my dad”.
“Dad was a known New Zealand artist and mates with Athfield, and the likes of Barry Brickell [a Coromandel potter who died in 2016] and Sam Hunt [the New Zealand poet] before it was trendy to know them all,” Davis’s daughter had written.
The late Sir Ian Athfield is held up as one of New Zealand's most consequential architects. Photo / Supplied
Rooney told OneRoof that the property was a “very personal place” for Davis’s family. “They said, ‘mum never wanted to go back, she couldn’t face it’.”
Davis taught at the former Palmerston North Teacher’s College art department, according to a press release from 2007, which describes his work as outside the mainstream, “often challenging contemporary ideas about New Zealand society. He had a close interest in things Māori”.
Among his works were paintings concerned with the life of Te Kooti Arikirangi Te Turuki, the resistance leader and founder of the Ringatu religion, said the release.
The agents said being involved with the sale of the castle was a privilege, describing it as a “magical” property.
It looks out over the Pacific to Great Mercury Island and takes in the white sands of some of the most beautiful beaches in the world, plus the bush in the area has kiwi and kaka.
The Coromandel property comes with the original plans drawn up by Davis and Athfield. Photo / Supplied
Said Greenhill: “The first time we set foot on the property the driveway was overgrown up to our hips and it was a bit of a battle to even get up there but they’ve since restored the driveway access pretty easily just through a bit of maintenance and stuff and then out of nowhere you turn around the corner and there’s a castle turret and the view is just stunning. It’s amazing.”
When Davis passed away the build was nowhere near finished, said Greenhill, but he used to use the castle, and his daughters recalled holidaying there.
The property was no longer liveable and while there is a garden and fruit trees, they are overgrown.
The documents lodged with the council were over 40 pages long and talked of Davis going up during the holidays to work on things like drainage. “It was never something he worked on full-time.”
The agents were unaware who had the original idea for the castle but Rooney said it was “Frank’s dream” and they would love to see someone else complete it.
“We’ve had interest from people who it would be their dream to continue the dream, to get it back to its original,” she said.
Tuateawa itself was also “a magic place” with a neat community, although the nearest shop was a half hour’s drive away at Colville, and the property was about 45 or 50 minutes from Coromandel town.
The property sits on 4.22ha. The agents hope someone will finish the work Davis and Athfield started. Photo / Supplied
There is power to the site but it needs to be connected, and Rooney said while “everything” needs to be done there is a concrete floor so the footprint is good, but parts of the design were missing, including a second turret and big sweeping steps.
The agents have seen some quirky properties in their time – it is the Coromandel, after all – but this one “takes the cake”.
Said Greenhill: “It’s very affectionately known as the Castle all through Tuateawa. We’ve had so many phone calls from locals saying ‘oh, I see you’ve got the Castle on for sale, are you going to do any open homes up there? We’d love to come and be nosy’. It is quite famous.”
While the agents would love the Castle to be completed, they said that was up to the new owners: “We’re basically marketing bare land and the opportunity, really,” said Greenhill.
“It would be so easy to pop a little tiny home or cabin up there for somebody who wanted to do the work and to restore it. There’s also lots of usable material in there that could be recycled.”
- 489 Tuateawa Road, in Coromandel, Thames-Coromandel, is seeking enquiries over $720,000
