During his mission with the Cyprus Pioneer Corps, Colonel Benjamin Donisthorpe Alsop Donne was endlessly fascinated with the beauty of his surroundings:
I went over the old fort and castle with Scott-Stevenson, Commissioner. I had a long day of it the 23rd starting early with a zaptieh as guide for the Monastery of Bella Pais. This is one of the most lovely spots imaginable – a fine old ruin with a grand view looking north. I stopped an hour to sketch it, then rode on up the side of the mountains to a place in the pass I had come over the day before, and met Houston a Scotsman settled pro tem at Kyrenia, who had brought out lunch. So we feasted on ‘foie gras’ and then rode up to St.Hilarion. The glorious view from the craggy heights of the splendid ruins of the old castle, built as it is on almost inaccessible points of rock 3000 feet above Kyrenia I cannot adequately describe.