Boyle Mansion

LadyBoylesLastParty — The courtyard of the Boyle Mansion.

"Don't be fooled if you hear laughter, or happen upon a smile. There is no lightness or merriment here."

—The Heart^[1]

The Boyle Mansion is a building in Dunwall owned by the Boyle family. It is located on Greasely Boulevard in the wealthy and opulent Estate District. During the Rat Plague, while much of the area surrounding the mansion is abandoned and filled with weepers, the City Watch has been ordered to fortify the area (likely by Hiram Burrows, due to his affair with Lady Boyle), bringing in Officers and tallboys.

Description[]

Built on the banks of an estuary, the mansion was originally the home of a High Overseer before being purchased by the Boyle family.^[2] It is not known when the mansion passed to the Boyles; however, due to the discovery of valuable crystal deposits (used in the making of rat lamps, a special type of anti-plague security) on Boyle land, the sisters have been able to maintain and modify the building for their own purposes.

The estate itself has several formal gardens, gazebos and summer houses surrounding the mansion.^[3] The garden directly outside the dining hall has a large rectangular area for archery and croquet practice,^[4] and occasionally duels. the courtyard is decked out in balloon-like lamps. A building in front of the mansion's entrance serves as a residence for the guards and storage house.

On the mansion's first floor are a vast ballroom replete with ornate furnishings; a foyer also doubling as the mansion's grand ballroom with gilded walls; a smoking room; and a music room. In the basement, there are the servants' quarters, a kitchen, and a large wine cellar containing a vault and river access via the sewers. Below that is a large vault which houses the skeleton of an unnaturally large whale gifted by Hiram Burrows to Waverly Boyle.^[5] On the upper level are the quarters of the Boyle sisters (two on one side of the great hall, one on the other side), an exhibition hall featuring urns and a Sokolov painting of Vera Moray.

Boylemansioninterior — Boyle Mansion interior.

In both of the two bedrooms that share the same side of the hall, there is a bellpull by the bed. Use either bellpull to open a hatch in the bedroom ceiling. The hatches lead to a hidden attic with a chest containing gold ingots, and the Boyle Cameo.

By 1851, an entire wing of the mansion has been closed off to serve as a prison of sorts for the mentally unstable Lydia Boyle. The wing consists of a long corridor with high-placed windows, decorated with paintings.^[6]

Trivia[]

The Heart says that Lydia Boyle went from room to room, intentionally "desecrating" the building after the family purchased it from the High Overseer.^[2]
Wallace Higgins does not believe that the decorations in the Boyle Mansion would work at Pendleton Manor, describing them as "too Tyvian."
There are several differences between the appearances of the Boyle Estate in Dishonored and The Corroded Man:
- In the novel, the ballroom and foyer, overlooked by a balcony, has a broad double staircase. In the game, it is a single staircase.
- In the novel, the garden outside the dining hall has a balustrade separating both levels, while in the game there isn't any.