Merlo slott, Timrå

The Archives at Merlo Castle

Between 1883 and 1885 the timber magnate Fredrik Bünsow raised a palace in Timrå that the district had not asked for. Villa Merlo — Merlo Castle — is the only castle in Norrland, and for decades it served as the central archive of SCA, the forest company that inherited the river and the woods. The building became a quiet workplace filled with historical documents, and the silence settled into the walls. Unlike anonymous internet rumours, the stories from Merlo are written down. Night guards and archive staff, working independently of one another, have reported dull, unexplained sounds from the upper floors after dark, the feeling of being intensely watched in the empty archive vaults, and shadows moving in the grand staircases when the building was locked. The castle is open now. Some of its rooms are not.