White Otter Castle

James Alexander McOuat, a Scottish-born trapper, built this between about 1903 and 1915 entirely alone on a lake with no road: four storeys of red pine logs, some sixteen metres long, cut, hauled and raised by one man using block and tackle. There are twenty-six windows, all of them freighted in. Why he built it has never been settled; the story usually told is a woman he expected to join him, or a taunt from a schoolteacher that he would die in a shack. He drowned in his fishing net in front of it in 1918 and was buried nearby. Volunteers restored the structure in the 1990s.

What you actually see

• The four-storey log tower - built alone with block and tackle.
• The freighted windows - twenty-six windows carried in over water.
• The lakeside setting - a remote lake with no road access.
• McOuat's grave - the builder's burial place near the house.

When to go

June to September, when boats and float planes operate; the lake freezes in winter and access is by snowmobile. The paddle route from Atikokan takes a day or more each way.

Honest expectations

There is no road; reaching it means a float plane, a boat charter or a long paddle with portages. There are no facilities. The building is a shell, restored but empty.

Nearby

Quetico lies south; Atikokan is the nearest town.