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Gillette Castle State Park, East Haddam, CT

Photo: Philip McQuade, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Cropped and resized.

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Gillette Castle State Park

Gillette Castle State Park is a sightseeing stop in East Haddam, CT, part of the Mystic & the Connecticut Shore guide. Cost: free. Castle tours daily Memorial Day weekend through Labor Day, then weekends and holidays through Columbus Day.

67 River Rd · East Haddam, CT

Why you should go…

Actor William Gillette designed this 24-room stone castle on a bluff above the Connecticut River, and it took twenty men from 1914 to 1919 to build. On a tour you see hand-hewn southern white oak woodwork, carved wooden light switches and 47 distinctly designed doors. The grounds are free to walk, with trails that follow the route of Gillette's three-mile narrow-gauge railroad past stone-arch bridges and wooded trestles. His old train station is now a picnic pavilion.

  • #castle
  • #state park
  • #historic home
  • #hiking trails
  • #connecticut river views

What's around here?

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