Casa Loma Layover: Toronto's Hilltop Castle
Part of the full Toronto Layover: CN Tower and Old Town, YYZ
Casa Loma is a 98-room house built like a castle on the ridge north of downtown Toronto, with towers, five acres of garden and a tunnel running under the lawn to its stables, and the Victorian mansion along the same ridge charges nothing to get into.
Casa Loma has 98 rooms and a tunnel to its stables
Sir Henry Pellatt made his money in electricity, specifically in the company that harnessed Niagara Falls, and between 1911 and 1914 he spent a great deal of it having E. J. Lennox build him a castle on the ridge at Austin Terrace. The result is 64,700 square feet over seven floors: 98 rooms, an oak room that took three woodcarvers three years, a conservatory with a stained-glass dome, and towers you can climb. Pellatt’s fortune collapsed in the 1920s and he lost the house; the city ended up with it.
The part people remember is underground. A passage runs from the basement beneath the lawn to the hunting lodge and the stable block, where the horses stood in mahogany stalls on a floor of Spanish tile, better finished than most of the houses on the street outside. Admission is timed and adult tickets run to roughly CA$40 once tax is added, though the price shifts with the season and the day. Doors are usually open 9:30am to 5pm with the last admission half an hour before, and an hour and a half is the least this needs.
The Baldwin Steps climb an old lake shoreline
Spadina Road meets Davenport Road at the bottom of a wooded slope that is not a hill in the ordinary sense: it is the shoreline of a glacial lake that stood here after the last ice age, and Davenport Road follows the beach at the foot of it. The staircase cut into that slope is the Baldwin Steps, 110 steps of stone and concrete opened in 1913 and named for the family that owned the land, including Robert Baldwin.
From the top the city runs away south in a straight line down Spadina, with the bank towers at the end of it. That view is free, permanent, and about ten minutes’ work. There is no lift or ramp anywhere on the steps, and nothing at the top will hold a bag while you climb, which makes the road route up Spadina Road the sensible one with luggage in hand.
Spadina House kept its orchard on the same ridge
Number 285 Spadina Road stands behind a hedge a short walk along the ridge from the castle, and it is the older and quieter of the two houses: built in 1866 for James Austin, who founded the Dominion Bank and ran Consumers Gas, and lived in by three generations of Austins until the family handed it over.
What survives is 5.7 acres of grounds with an orchard, a grape arbour, a kitchen garden and formal beds, plus the interiors, which were left showing the family’s successive tastes rather than restored to a single period: mid-Victorian through Arts and Crafts to 1930s Colonial Revival, in the same rooms. General admission costs nothing, the house is seen on a guided tour, and it opens Wednesday to Sunday from 11am to 5pm. Coming here straight after the castle is the clearest illustration on this hill of what old money looked like when it was not trying to be a castle.
Dupont station sits fifteen minutes downhill
Everything from there involves a change, and there are two whichever way you go. South on the subway reaches Union Station in a little over ten minutes, and the UP Express covers the rest out to Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ), every fifteen minutes from around 5am to 1am, 25 to 28 minutes on the train, CA$12.35 or CA$9.25 with a Presto card. Going west instead, to Dundas West, puts you at the same airport train’s Bloor station for a shorter and cheaper ride.
Either way, budget an hour and three quarters from the castle gates to the check-in desk. This hill sits far enough from everything else that it works best as the single thing you do with an afternoon; if you want several stops rather than one, the central Toronto itinerary keeps to the flat ground near the water.
Frequently asked questions
What should I do during a layover near Casa Loma in Toronto?
Three to four hours of daylight covers this hill properly. Casa Loma itself takes an hour and a half to two hours with the towers and the stable tunnel, and it is the only stop here that charges. Spadina House next along the ridge is free to get into and its orchard and kitchen garden are open through the afternoon. The Baldwin Steps and the view south from the top of them cost nothing and take ten minutes. Both houses shut at 5pm, so this is an afternoon rather than an evening.
How do you actually get up to Casa Loma?
Two ways, and they are not equivalent. The Baldwin Steps run straight up the escarpment from Spadina Road at Davenport, 110 steps of stone and concrete opened in 1913, with no lift or ramp beside them. The alternative is to stay on the roads and come up Spadina Road itself, which is a longer and steadily rising walk but has no steps in it, or to start from the subway station at Dupont and walk west. Anyone travelling with a pushchair, heavy bags or someone who cannot manage stairs wants the road, not the steps.
Is anything on this hill free?
Spadina House at 285 Spadina Road is, general admission included, open Wednesday to Sunday from 11am to 5pm, with the house itself seen on a guided tour and the gardens walkable on their own. The Baldwin Steps and the view over the city from the top of them are free and open all the time. Casa Loma is the one with a gate and a price on it.
How long does it take to get from Casa Loma to the airport?
Allow an hour and three quarters. It is about fifteen minutes on foot from the house down to Dupont station, then the subway south to Union Station, and the UP Express out to Toronto Pearson International Airport (YYZ) from there, every fifteen minutes and 25 to 28 minutes on the train, CA$12.35 or CA$9.25 tapped with a Presto card. Going west on the subway to Dundas West and catching the same train at its Bloor station is usually a few minutes quicker and slightly cheaper.