A Scottish Castle in North America: The Story of Bannerman Scottish Castle

Tucked away on a small island in the Hudson River, just 50 miles north of New York City, stands a crumbling, romantic relic that looks like it was plucked straight from the Scottish Highlands. With its rugged silhouette, turrets, and sweeping views of the surrounding valley, Bannerman Castle is a striking anomaly in the American landscape. But what few know is that its roots are proudly and deliberately Scottish.

The castle was the vision of Francis Bannerman VI, a Scottish-American arms dealer whose family emigrated from Dundee, Scotland, to the United States in the mid-19th century. Bannerman, a savvy and eccentric entrepreneur, amassed a fortune supplying military surplus—and with it, a fascination for all things medieval and Scottish.

Francis Bannerman VI was born on March 24, 1851, in Dundee, Scotland, and immigrated to the United States with his family in 1854. The Bannermans settled in Brooklyn, where young Francis—known as Frank—left school at the age of ten to help support the family. What began as a humble scrap business collecting rope and metal near the Brooklyn Navy Yard evolved into one of the largest military surplus empires in the world.

Frank’s knack for spotting opportunity was uncanny. After the US Civil War, he began purchasing surplus military goods at government auctions.

Bannerman is widely credited with creating what became the prototype for the modern Army-Navy surplus store. After the Civil War, he began buying up massive quantities of surplus military equipment—everything from rifles and cannons to uniforms and swords—and selling them to the public. His business, Bannerman’s, became so successful that he opened a massive warehouse in New York City and published a legendary catalog that spanned hundreds of pages.

His big break came after the Spanish-American War, when he acquired an astonishing 90% of the captured Spanish arms and equipment. His illustrated catalogs, which eventually spanned hundreds of pages, became essential reading for collectors and historians alike.

But Bannerman wasn’t just a merchant—he was a romantic, a preservationist, and a man of vision. He believed that the weapons of war should one day become relics of peace, housed in a museum to the “lost arts.” His dream was to see his collection outlive its utility and serve as a testament to history. That dream took physical form in the castle he built on Pollepel Island.

In 1900, he purchased Pollepel Island to store his vast stockpile of ammunition and collectibles. But storage alone wouldn’t do. Bannerman dreamed bigger: a grand, castle-like arsenal that would pay homage to his heritage and reflect the mighty stone fortresses of his ancestors.

So, in true Scots fashion, he built one.

c. 1943 by the War Department, National Archives

Bannerman Castle was never intended to be a residence. Instead, it was a romanticized Scottish stronghold: part warehouse, part vanity project, and entirely a love letter to Bannerman’s lineage. Gothic revival details, crenellated towers, and a coat of arms emblazoned with the family name—he even inscribed “Bannerman’s Island Arsenal” into the structure’s façade—leave no doubt about the cultural pride behind its creation.

Today, the castle stands in ruins, damaged by explosions, weather, and time. Yet its bones still whisper stories of a man who bridged two continents with mortar and myth. Preservation efforts are ongoing, and visitors can explore the site through guided tours and events that keep the memory of both Francis Bannerman and his homeland alive.

So the next time you think Scottish castles are all tucked in the glens of the Highlands, or or the Northeast coast, remember—one of them watches over the Hudson River, a tartaned sentinel among New York’s rolling hills.

This month we are looking at all of the most "Scottish Places" in North America, what other sites do you know about?