Belly dancers and baclava: Inside Eddy Haymour’s Peachland castle during the party years

It was a Middle Eastern-themed bed and breakfast that brought in guests from around the world to enjoy ethnic food, music and entertainment.

Castle Haymour is impossible to miss, perched on a hillside along Highway 97 in Peachland looking like something from a foreign land.

It was built in 1987 by Eddy Haymour, a famous former Peachland resident with a tumultuous history in the region who immigrated from Lebanon to Canada in the 1950s.

His daughter, Fadwa, was a little girl when the castle was being built.

“I remember being there when they were putting the turrets together,” she told iNFOnews.ca. “There was a big crane and they had to shut down the highway, things were definitely different back then.

“We never saw much of Eddy because he was off building his castle. It was castle, castle, castle. He decided he was going to do it and went off and did it.”

The castle was completed in 1988 and opened to the public as a Lebanese-themed bed and breakfast.

Fadwa said extravagant dinner parties were held on weekends where roughly 50 guests would enjoy a traditional 12-course Lebanese feast accompanied by Arabic music and live belly dancing.

“I spent countless hours helping my mom prepare for each event,” she said. “Whether I was skewering shish kabobs, washing dishes, ironing tablecloths or blowing up balloons for special celebrations, I wanted to be involved.”

Former Kamloops resident Lillian Kwan remembers spending a few nights at the castle with her late husband in 1990.

“We’d heard about the castle and we’d driven by it several times. It looked so interesting and one day we thought, hey, let’s just go check it out,” she said. “We didn’t regret it, it was so good.”

More than three decades later, the details of Kwan’s time at the castle are foggy, however, she remembers the feeling of the place. More importantly, it was a happy occasion for her husband.

“He was going through a rough time and I think that’s why we went to the castle, to do something different,” she said. “It turned out it was what he needed.”

The couple spent a few nights at the castle in a Middle Eastern-themed room. They enjoyed authentic ethnic food and entertainment.

“It was magical, we were transported to another world, and the food was delicious.” Kwan said. “There was a belly dancer or two, and music. I remember standing out on a balcony looking across the lake at Rattlesnake Island.”

Kwan’s memory of Eddy Haymour is clear.

“He was gregarious, friendly and welcoming, and he loved to talk,” she said. “He spent all night talking to my husband about his life and where he was from. My husband was very interested in history and soaked it all up.

“My husband was a bit of a quirky, artistic man, a lot of people didn’t understand him. I think he could identify with Eddy.”

The extravagant dinners become increasingly popular and soon the Haymours were hosting them multiple times a week.

“While the success was rewarding it also came at an enormous personal cost,” Fadwa said. “Mom would be preparing at four in the morning and wouldn’t finish until the two the next morning only to start all over again a few hours later.

“Eddy kept building bigger and better rooms and expected my mom to take care of everything while he’d sit there and tell guests stories. Make more coffee, he’d say, bring more food, go get some baclava. He was always wanting to entertain guests but he wouldn’t get off his butt to do the work himself.”

Fadwa and her mom Pat Haymour left the castle and moved into Kelowna for a quieter life in 1993. Eddy stayed behind and tried to make it work on his own, hiring various managers over the years.

Fadwa and her mom moved back in between 1997 and 2001 to help manage rooms before Eddy’s nephews took over the castle. Fadwa keeps fond childhood memories of the party years there.

“To me it wasn’t work, it was exciting. The castle would come alive as guests arrived.”

Located at 6239 Renfrew Road, the castle is no longer operating as a hotel, but visitors can still view its exterior and learn more about its history at the Peachland Museum.