44901 N Fairmont Rd
Lancaster, CA 93536
The Castle Ranch · Land For Sale · 506.00 AC

It Was "A Dream Come True." What seems like a mysterious mirage in Los Angeles' backyard, on the beautiful rolling hills near Del Sur, is a stone replica of a medieval Irish castle. It is one of Southern California's most overlooked landmarks, home to such characters as a cowboy star, the builder of Hancock Park and a playboy radio-TV heir. Secluded on a tranquill hilltop, in the vast openness of the smog free high desert, Antelope Valley's most curious architectural secret is a single-turreted granite palace fortified in mystery, and fantasy, its story often known only through a web of rumors. The surrounding land is still untouched as it was when a Los Angeles real estate baron who co-founded Hancock Park decided to build this storybook fortress in 1924. It would become known as Shea's Castle, after its builder, Richard Peter Shea. The estate, which now encompasses 506 acres, sits hidden in fairy-tale fashion along a section of the California Aqueduct about 15 miles west of Lancaster/Palmdale and 20 miles NW of Valencia, invisible from the nearest thoroughfare, Munz Ranch road. t began as a labor of love for Shea's frail, ailing wife, a palace inspired by a painting Shea once saw of a castle near Dublin, Ireland. And when the job was finished, in 1924, he mounted on the castle's entrance a plaque, since vanished, that read, "A dream come true." The interior walls are raw desert rock, the ceilings are massive hand-hewn beams, and mullioned windows filter the bright sunlight. Over two of its seven fireplaces, Shea installed blue-green rock he imported especially from Ireland. But in its sprawling one-story layout, the castle is more California modern than medieval Irish. Its hidden location has kept the castle from the public and has fueled speculation about its history. In the early 1920s, New York-born Shea was drawn to California and Lancaster by the area's isolation and hopes that the clear, dry air would improve the health of his wife, Ellen. Flush with cash after subdividing Hancock Park and other wealthy Los Angeles enclaves that sold $56 million worth of property within three years, Shea reportedly spent $500,000 on his eight-bedroom, seven-bath, seven-fireplace, two-kitchen castle. It was a boost to the local economy. Shea hired more than 100 laborers to quarry thousands of tons of granite from boulders on the property to form the castle's 3- to 5-foot-thick walls. A stable in a similar motif was built just a short distance away from the castle.