Eric,
I find Bannerman and his castle most intriguing. Too bad the place is not in such good shape these days. I've always found abandoned buildings fascinating. Here's a link to Boldt Castle, which is close to where I grew up. Originally, it was never completed--the owner's wife died, and he had been building it for her. The state preservation folks have been at work stabilizing what was there, and moving forward with construction to complete selected areas of the place, most notably the stained glass work above the grand stairwell. As a proposed subcontractor of a colleague who works in stained glass, I put in a bid for completing the steel framework to hold the glass panels, but another company entirely was selected to do the work.
http://www.boldtcastle.com/visitorinfo/