Hazelnut Inn

In the rural village of Yarrow BC, a three-suite hotel contains a little castle with a moat, a sailing ship wedged into a tower, and an underground house beneath an artificial hillside.

The Hazelnut Inn was built over nine years by the Imagination Corporation, a theme-park design and fabrication company. Its founders, Peter and Hailey Sawatzky, stayed in a restored Roman villa on their honeymoon and wondered why they couldn't build a small castle hotel of their own in Canada.

The Copper Crown Suite, the last to be completed, is a miniature castle. A steel dragon guards its garden gate, and a bridge crosses a tiny moat into the courtyard. Four armoured statues watch over the great hall, and dragons are carved throughout the masonry and woodwork. A secret door leads to a tiny library.

The North Star Suite is built around the stern of the Avellana, a tall ship fabricated in the company's workshop. The ship was craned into position above the garden entrance before the building was framed around it. Inside, mermaids flank the bed, while a hand-painted astrological map covers the domed ceiling of the tower.

The Under Hill Suite is cut into an artificial hillside. Concrete tree roots cross the ceiling, carved rabbit doors open onto the garden, and owl heads are sculpted into the bedposts. Flowers hang to dry in the kitchenette. It looks like the sort of house you might find after taking a wrong turn in a fairytale.

Together, the three suites make the hotel feel like a collection of miniature worlds with beds in them.