Hatley Park
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| Location | Royal Roads University (formerly the Royal Roads Military College) in Colwood, British Columbia in Greater Victoria, British Columbia Canada |
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| Type | University Museum; Historic House Museum |
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| Official name | Hatley Park / Former Royal Roads Military College National Historic Site of Canada |
| Designated | 1995 |
Hatley Park National Historic Site is located in Colwood, British Columbia in Greater Victoria. It is the site of Hatley Castle, a Classified Federal Heritage Building. Since 1995, the mansion and estate have been used for the public Royal Roads University. From the 1940s to 1995, it was used for the Royal Roads Military College, a naval training facility.
The extensive grounds of the historic site have formal gardens, former farmland, and trails through mature stands of first and second-growth forest, including large Douglas fir and western red cedar.
In 1906, B.C.'s Lieutenant Governor, James Dunsmuir, who was of Scottish descent, purchased the property. He and his wife Laura commissioned the renowned Canadian architect Samuel Maclure to build a 40-room mansion in the Scottish baronial style; the Tudor revival style was popular in the Edwardian period. The Dunsmuirs created many beautiful formal gardens using the services of renowned American garden designers Franklin Brett and George D. Hall of Boston, Massachusetts. The Dunsmuirs named their estate "Hatley Park", in the tradition of British and European private estates. The castle became a landmark and was occupied by descendants of the Dunsmuir family until the last years of the Great Depression.
Following the death of Laura Dunsmuir in 1937 the estate was sold to the Government of Canada in 1939. The government sold off some of the land and during five days in June 1939, “Maynard & Sons” conducted a public auction of the mansion's contents totaling 927 lots. In 2008, the 100th anniversary of Hatley Castle was celebrated.
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