Wilson Castle is an improbable Victorian Gothic mansion about 5 miles southwest of Rutland, perched on a hilltop with a 115-acre estate of lawns, forests, and meadows. The exterior is all turrets, towers, and decorative stonework. Inside there are 84 rooms filled with European antiques, tapestries, and a collection of stained glass.
Tours run from May through October, led by guides who are notably candid about the building's eccentric history and the succession of owners who struggled to maintain it. The setting — a mid-19th century English castle fantasy dropped into a Vermont hillside — is genuinely strange in a way that photographs don't fully capture. It's about a 10-minute drive from Rutland centre.