History Timeline

Māori settle in Otago, adapting to the region’s rugged landscape. They hunt moa and use the Clutha River to transport game. According to local mythology, the rock towers overlooking Earnscleugh are the frozen remains of Kopuwai, a man-eating giant, and his two-headed hounds.

Sealers and whalers arrive, interacting with Ngāi Tahu Māori. Land sales begin, with Ngāi Tahu chiefs selling to the New Zealand Company in 1844, setting the stage for European settlement. The Otago Association, a Free Church of Scotland offshoot, lays plans for a Scottish settlement, emphasising community-driven governance.

Alfred Strode, a veteran of the Wellington Militia and Otago’s police magistrate, secures the lease for Earnscleugh Station, a sprawling sheep run. Managed by young Scotsman William Fraser, the station capitalises on the Central Otago gold rush, sparked just months later by Gabriel Read’s discovery at Gabriel’s Gully. Sheep farming takes root, but rabbits, introduced in the 1830s, begin to plague the land.

Rabbits, initially released for sport by the Otago Acclimatisation Society, spread to Earnscleugh Station, devastating pastures. By this time, they’ve already stripped much of Central Otago’s native grasses, transforming the landscape into a barren, eroded expanse. Early control efforts, like poisoning and trapping, begin but struggle to keep up.

Fraser and Strode introduce ferrets to combat the rabbit scourge at Earnscleugh Station, while shepherds take up rifles to shoot the pests. Rabbiting becomes a full-time job, with freelancers selling pelts and carcasses to offset costs. The station’s battle against “the evil” shapes its early economy.

Overwhelmed by rabbits, lessee James Laidlaw, once wealthy, is left nearly penniless and surrenders the lease. The station’s pastures are decimated, a stark reminder of the environmental toll rabbits exacted on Central Otago.

Stephen Spain, born in a tent during the 1862 gold rush, acquires the Earnscleugh lease. A butcher and baker from Alexandra, Spain has faced bankruptcy and minor legal troubles (including unpaid newspaper subscriptions and wandering pigs). Yet, he sees opportunity in the rabbit-infested land, turning pest control into profit through canning rabbit meat for export, especially to World War I troops.

Buoyed by profits from his rabbit-canning empire, Stephen Spain commissions architect Edmund Anscombe to design a magnificent homestead in the Edwardian / Jacobethan style. The “castle,” with its imposing red-brick façade, rectangular windows with ornamental lintels, and symmetrical grandeur, embodies the era’s appetite for conspicuous consumption. In response to the devastating 1918 influenza pandemic, which also claimed thousands of lives across New Zealand, Anscombe uses an open-air first-floor balcony to promote health through fresh air and sunlight, a design choice reflecting contemporary beliefs about combating disease. Construction of this ambitious vision begins in the early 1920s, setting the stage for a Central Otago icon.

The red brick “Jacobethan” castle takes shape, a bold statement on Crown leasehold land. Anscombe’s plans include a plastered façade, but Spain’s funds dwindle as Britain’s market floods with canned meat. The rabbit-canning factory closed in 1924, and the castle remains unfinished but liveable, earning the additional local nickname “Spain’s Folly.”

The Great Depression compounds Spain’s financial woes, and rabbits resurge at Earnscleugh. The incomplete castle stands as a testament to ambition outpacing reality, its un-plastered brickwork and concrete pillars a symbol of unfulfilled dreams. Locals marvel at its eccentricity, a “tangible manifestation” of runholder extravagance as quoted by Heritage New Zealand.

As Earnscleugh Station’s fortunes fade with the lingering effects of the Great Depression and the collapse of Stephen Spain’s rabbit-canning empire, a deeper rift tears through the family. Following Spain’s death in 1940, his siblings, locked in a bitter feud, erect a brick wall straight through the heart of Earnscleugh Castle. The wall, slicing the homestead and its garden in two, creates separate living spaces, each with its own kitchen, as they seek to avoid all contact. Described in Castle on the Run by Spain’s granddaughter Gay McInnes, this stark division mirrors the station’s struggles, transforming the once-grand manor into a symbol of familial discord.

Earnscleugh Castle is sold in 1948 to the Mulvena family. The grand, yet still unfinished castle is still bisected by the brick wall from the Spain brothers’ feud. Undaunted by the station’s rabbit-ravaged past, the Mulvenas, a Central Otago farming family, see potential in the homestead and its surrounding acres, aiming to revive the land for agriculture and orcharding. This marks a new chapter for the castle, as it shifts from a symbol of familial strife to a working estate under new stewardship.

The Alexandra dredge, dubbed “Awatea of the River,” operates on Earnscleugh Flats, seeking gold along the banks of the Clutha River. The largest and most advanced of its kind, it processes vast amounts of riverbed, leaving towering tailings. Operations ceased in 1963, marking the end of large-scale dredging in the region.

In 1981, Alistair and Judith Campbell, alongside four prominent Dunedin businessmen, purchased Earnscleugh Station from the Mulvena family, ushering in a period of renewal. With rabbits once again plaguing the land, the Campbells embark on an ambitious development program, erecting over 100 kilometres of new fencing in just two years to bolster the station’s viability. They acquired the Te Akatarawa Hereford stud, rebranding it as the Earnscleugh High Country Genetics and set their sights on restoring the property’s agricultural prowess.

In 1997, Earnscleugh Coach House earned its place on the New Zealand Heritage List as a Category 1 historic place, cementing its status as a cultural treasure. Heritage New Zealand praises the homestead as a rare Jacobethan gem, the only one of its kind built for a sheep station rather than a university or townhouse. The listing, spurred by a 1997 Historic Places Trust assessment, celebrates the castle’s architectural uniqueness and its role in Central Otago’s pastoral saga, ensuring its preservation for future generations under the watchful eye of heritage guardians.

Earnscleugh Flats see a brief gold mining resurgence, with operations starting in 2009. The venture shuts down in 2015 due to low gold prices and a strong New Zealand dollar, but not before the homestead and land are sold as separate blocks. A Central Otago orchardist buys the castle, planning apple cultivation nearby.

In 2016, the Van der Voort family, led by Con van der Voort, a forward-thinking horticulturist, acquired Earnscleugh Castle and a substantial land block of nearly 400h. As part of their family business, CAJ Apples, they subdivided the land to grow their premium apples which are exported to over 60 countries across the globe. Other land portions were sold to neighbouring farmers and a Southland dairy operator. In 2022, the Van der Voorts passed the torch to current stewards. As Jackie van der Voort commented in 2022, the family decided to sell the building as it needed to be restored. “It’s an asset to the community that we don’t want to see lost”.

Ryan Sanders and Marco Creemers purchase Earnscleugh Castle with a vision to restore the category 1 listed property into their home and the Coach House as luxury accommodation. Inspired by its colourful past, detailed in Castle on the Run by Gay McInnes, Spain’s granddaughter, they begin waterproofing and planning renovations, working with Heritage New Zealand to preserve its legacy. Their goal: revive the castle’s grandeur while honouring its history. The process is followed by a major TV production company to air in 2026.