Abandoned King Zog’s Estate
Syosset, New York [First Exploration]

During the Gilded Age, extravagantly lavish mansions were built by big money families on Long Island’s North Shore. Their opulence dubbed the area The Gold Coast. Within that latter history the Knollwood Estate was purchased by the exiled ruler of Albania in 1951, King Zog. But King Zog, who had been fleeing Mussolini from country to country in Europe, never moved in and it sat abandoned after Zog’s parliament sold the estate to Lansdell K. Christie, an ore tycoon, in 1955. Mostly demolished in 1959, some ruins still remain in the hiking and horse trails of the tremendous Muttontown Preserve.

I have been intrigued by this place for many years, but have never attempted to find. But today, I tracked it down and have bookmarked it for return when summer’s greenery dies off. Here is what I saw within the horse trails starting out at Muttowntown’s Equestrian Center, not to be confused with the Nassau Equestrian Center which is very close by and whose nice horse handler told me I was in the wrong spot:

Easy parking at the Center.

90 degrees out–Not the best time to hike the trails. Lots of Æon Flux moments with bugs and my eyes. And the heat and my hormonally charged sense of smell made the horse dung pretty fierce.

The most prominent feature is visible from the road–the gates to the Estate

That’s Route 106 out there.

There were two scout trails I followed. I was a bit turned around, but got guidance from a young couple.

Inside, nothing but overgrowth. Not prepared to trudge within it for more interesting decay, I will just return in the winter.

I’ll be back.