Did the Knights Templar build a castle in New Ross a century before Christopher Columbus made landfall in the Bahamas?
Were the Vikings, like the fabled protectors of the Holy Grail, drawn to the same location 500 years earlier?
It depends upon who you ask.
“I think it’s a crock of horse (manure),” said Dwight Sanders.
“But there are people that honestly believe it.”
Sanders owns the Christmas tree lot surrounding a New Ross property that has been attracting big historical claims ever since Joan and Ron Harris bought it in 1972.
Under her pen name, Joan Hope, Harris self-published the book, A Castle in Nova Scotia.
In it she claims to have found evidence that the Vikings built a castle on the property during the 13th century and that 400 years later a mansion was built for Scottish Stuart royalty. Her writings also reference leprechaun and UFO sightings.
Harris’ opinions were expanded upon by Michael Bradley after she invited the author of alternative histories to her property in 1981.
In his book Holy Grail Across the Atlantic, which underwent at least five printings, Bradley surmises that Scottish earl Henry Sinclair sailed with the remnants of the order of the Knights Templar to Nova Scotia in 1398 with the Holy Grail.
None of these claims have been published in peer-reviewed historical journals.
Denis Parada is one of the believers.
The owner of Finders Keepers USA, a Pennsylvania-based treasure hunting company, intends to find out this coming spring.
His company was brought to Nova Scotia by the History Channel to scan the property with ground penetrating radar.
He claims to have found gold, tunnels up to 1,200 feet long that include right-angle turns, and rocks cut in the manner of the Knights Templar and the Norse. His Facebook site, New Ross Castle, has 743 followers.
“We’re finding a lot of stuff,” said Parada in a December interview with The Chronicle Herald.
“We’re going to go up in the springtime and do some more drilling.”
When he does, Sanders will be watching.
“Oh yeah, I let them explore on my land,” said Sanders.
“I don’t want to be impolite . . . they’ve always treated me good. Anything they move they put back.”
Vanessa Smith won’t be watching.
The Halifax-based archeologist and member of the board of directors of the Nova Scotia Archaeology Society, doesn’t think the Vikings or the Knights Templar were ever in New Ross.
“People really love a good story. . . . Sometimes these more wild and speculative claims tend to get the most attention because they are a great story,” said Smith, who studied the claims of Harris and Bradley for an undergrad project at St. Mary’s University.
“I don’t see any evidence to support those theories.”
What she has seen at New Ross is evidence of blacksmithing, farming and mining over the last 200 to 300 years.
“I’ve been involved in public archeology events around Nova Scotia and there’s been a tremendous response,” said Smith.
“It’s not speculative. It’s not Knights Templar or Roman swords; it’s a foundry site in Stellarton, for example, or a farming community.”
Katie Cottreau-Robins, archeology curator at the Nova Scotia Museum, could not be reached for comment.
