Ben Lomond Manor Traditional Geocache

Medium sized lock-n-lock located at Ben Lomond Manor House in the community of Sudley near Manassas. We're hoping this will be one of those "I never knew that was there" caches. Persons over 5 feet tall will have a better chance of finding this cache, although smaller persons may be lifted or suspended to snag it. Parking is close either across Sudley Manor Drive or adjacent to the Manor house itself.

Ben Lomond Manor House is situated on land originally granted to Robert "King" Carter as part of his 6,700-acre Lower Bull Run Tract. In 1724, Carter patented the tract in the name of his grandson, Robert Councillor Carter, who divided it among his children, Sarah, Pricilla, and George. Sarah acquired the 730 acre portion that extended into Fairfax County and included the present day area of Sudley.

Ben Lomond Manor was built in 1837.

During the Civil War the house served as a field hospital by both sides. Some of the walls are covered with penciled graffiti in the form of names, dates, military units and places. The graffiti was discovered when wall paper was pulled off the walls during restoration attempts in the early 1980's. None of the names can be matched with anyone who served at First or Second Manassas, so it is thought more likely that the names came from soldiers passing through the area.

Today, Prince William County owns the Ben Lomond Historical Site. There are many interpretive programs for youth, families and interested adults to learn more about our community's local history. The site features five buildings, a stone farm house, the dairy house, the smokehouse, former slave quarter/general store and a 20th century wood frame farmhouse on six acres of landscaped property. Originally, there were 1,000 or more acres of land. Ben Lomond features a beautiful rose garden that is glorious in the spring.

Congrats to Tazmasized for FTF!

Note: Appropriate permission has been graciously granted for this geocache. Please respect the historic site during your search. If you think you are about to disturb something of instrinsic historic value, please look elsewhere.