Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children is the main setting of the novel Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. It is a loop located in Wales near the town of Cairnholm, where all of Miss Peregrine's wards live.
Description
September 3rd 1940
Miss Peregrine's home is in the loop of Cairnholm on September 3, 1940. A loop is an occurence which only a ymbryne can conduct where a past date (such as September 3, 1940) exists and repeats itself over and over, though the experience of it by those who are peculiar differentiates.
Like the date changes with midnight, Miss Peregrine's loop is reset with the changeover. Specifically, every changeover is the bombing of Cairnholm on September 3rd, 1940. Once the changeover occurs, the loop is reset. While the peculiars can have different experiences on the island, it is told by Millard that every other living being on the island (both people and animals alike) do not have have different experiences. Unless interrupted by one of the peculiars, all of Cairnholm's resients and wildlife do the same things continuously every day. Due to his invisibility, Millard was able to document all of these things that each person or creature did in the back pages of the Map of Days.
Only peculiars can pass through loops, meaning the peculiars within it are protected from hollowgasts. Unfortunately, wights are able to pass through, which results in Mr. Barron breaking in and capturing Miss Peregrine and Miss Avocet.
The entrance to Miss Peregrine's loop is on Cairnholm Island, Wales, on the other side of the Cairn Tunnel.
The house has turrets and chimneys pointed confidently towards the sky. A flagstone and freshly painted steps lead up to the porch of the house. The staircase gleamed with varnish and has banisters. The staircase is located near the dining room. The dining room has a long wooden table ringed by chairs. The walls have wallpaper and wainscoting and cheerful shades of paint. Flowers were arranged in vases. There were fainting couches and armchairs, and sunlight streamed through high windows. There were sofas and a sunny sitting room with an elaborate Persian rug and a high-backed chair. The classroom looks like a real classroom now with desks arranged in a row and a chalkboard in one corner and books dusted and organized on the shelves. Emma's bedroom had a crisply made bed in front of her boots. Along one wall was a chest of drawers and a mirror, on the other a writing desk with a chair tucked underneath. A hatbox filled with Abe's letters is hidden in the closet. It was tied up with string, and in grease pencil across the front was written. The greenhouse had overturned planters among climbing roses, a kerosene lantern on the grass, and glass walls.
A broad expanse of lawn bloomed with flowers and striped with neat gardens. The yard had shade trees and flowerbeds bursting with color. Out on the grassy pitch, someone kicked a ball too hard, and it flew up into a giant topiary animal and got stuck. Arranged all in a row were several of these animal bushes—fantastic creatures as tall as the house, standing guard against the woods—including a winged griffin, a rearing centaur, and a mermaid. One giant topiary was a leafy replica of Michelangelo’s fresco of Adam from the Sistine Chapel. The woods are nearby, where the path was as wide and clear as any trail in a national park.
September 2nd 1940
With the assistance of Perplexus Anomalous, Miss. Peregrine was able to make a new loop on Cairnholm, with a few adjustments. The loop entrance was moved from the Cairn entrance to an unknown location, and the topiary is in the shape of Miss. Avocet 'spreading her arms in welcome' rather than a replica of Michelangelo’s 'Adam'.
Present Day
In the present day, the doorway no longer has a door. The rooms are more outside than inside, character stripped away by moisture and wind and layers of dirt. Arranged along a hallway striped with peeling wallpaper, the rooms were in surprisingly good shape. Though one or two had been invaded by mold where a broken window had let in the rain, the rest were packed with things that seemed only a layer or two of dust away from new: a mildewed shirt tossed casually over the back of a chair, loose change skimming a nightstand. Sagging piles of rotted wood and fabric are located in a room. One room was a classroom. There were wooden toys moldering in a box; crayons on a windowsill, their colors dulled by the light of ten thousand afternoons; a dollhouse with dolls inside, lifers in an ornate prison. In a modest library, the creep of moisture had bowed the shelves into crooked smiles. There were classics like Peter Pan and The Secret Garden, histories written by authors forgotten by history, textbooks of Latin and Greek. In the corner were corralled a few old desks. Miss Peregrine's bedroom has a pair of heavy doors that were swelled shut. It had cobwebbed candles mounted in wall sconces, a mirrored vanity table topped with crystal bottles, and a giant oak bed. Abraham Portman's bedroom has petals of powder-blue wallpaper drooped toward a couple of small beds, still clad in dusty sheets. Beneath one of the beds, an old suitcase is hidden. The old suitcase is empty except for a jar full of dead beetles. A big old steamer trunk is hidden under the second bed. The steamer trunk is latched with a giant rusting padlock and contained photographs. One of the other rooms has a busted chair, currently without one of its legs. The rail along the top of the staircase landing had long ago collapsed. There is currently a jagged trunk-shaped hole in the floorboards from the steamer trunk that fell straight to the basement. The basement was a meandering complex of rooms and lightless. The basement has creaking stairs and Jacob describes the strange, acrid smell to be like the supply closet of a chemistry classroom. The floor is covered in cracked flagstone and mouse turds. The basement is filled with glass jars filled with organs: brains, hearts, lungs, and eyes; all pickled in some kind of home-brewed formaldehyde. They were all shapes and sizes, mottled with dust. Around a corner, a small room next to the basement has part of the ceiling caved in. Daylight streamed through the hole onto a mound of splintered floorboards and broken glass from which rose coils of silty dust, pieces of torn carpet plastered here and there like scraps of desiccated meat. The basement has high-stepping javelins of wood and planks studded with rusting nails.
Wards
Current Wards
Bronwyn Bruntley
A very loyal peculiar with the strong-arm peculiarity, or inhuman strength. She is noted as not being very bright, but is keenly observant. She is the sister of Victor Bruntley.
Olive Abroholos Elephanta
Very cheerful, and friendly to everyone, she is lighter than air and has to wear weighted boots so she doesn't float away.
Horace Somnusson
Noted to be very well dressed; Horace is a very formal, if somewhat cowardly individual with prophetic dreams.
Millard Nullings
Millard is invisible, and often nude to remain completely undetectable. He is occasionally insensitive, and often snubs others in favour of his books. He is quite skilled with maps.
Hugh Apiston
Hugh has bees that live in his stomach and obey his directions. He is occasionally rash, but very open minded and kind. He is noted to be a 'famously bad explainer of things’.
Fiona Frauenfeld
Fiona has the ability to manipulate plants. She is described as 'wild looking' and rarely speaks. She often grows dog roses, occasionally unintentionally. Is very close with Hugh Apiston.
Enoch O'Connor
Enoch acts arrogant and antagonistic, and is often quite rude to everyone around him. It is noted that this is because he is extremely insecure. He is a deadriser, and likes to make small clay 'homonculi' for testing and entertainment.
Claire Densmore
The youngest of Miss. Peregrine's Wards, Claire is a rather shy girl with a second mouth on the back of her head. She gets quite upset when the other children break the rules or disrespect the ymbrynes.
Jacob Portman
He is the main character in the story. He comes from a rich family with an "unstable" grandpa, Abraham Portman. He inherits the ability of being able to see the monsters from his grandpa. When Jacob was looking for his grandpa in the woods with his friend Ricky he saw his first monster (that killed his grandpa). He was deemed unstable like his grandpa was. His psychiatrist Dr. Golan convinced Jacob to try to find the meaning of his Grandpa's last words. That led Jacob to going to the island where he tried to get in contact to Miss. Peregrine or one of her wards but he finds that they all died from a bomb on September 3, 1940. One day after exploring the house he falls through the floor and hears people talking upstairs. He then chased them to a cave. He went into it to find no one. He walked out and got sent back in time to the day the bomb exploded the house. From there Jacob becomes friends with the children and helps protect them from outside forces.
FROM THE COLLECTION OF ROBERT JACKSON
Emma Bloom
Having the powers of fire in the book and able to control air in the movie. Emma has been in the loop since September 3, 1940. She was romantically involved with Jacob Portman's grandpa, Abraham Portman, then years later Jacob after Abraham left to fight in the war. She is intelligent, honest, powerful and loyal.
Noor Pradesh
A brave and intelligent teenager, one of the seven light-eaters of the prophecy. Joined Miss Peregrine's wards in the second loop on Cairnholm.
Past Wards
Abraham Portman: A critical ward to Miss Peregrine due to his rare ability to see hollows. Abraham left the loop to fight in the war and to hunt hollowgasts and wights.
Charlotte: A past ward of Miss Peregrine's that she had been tending to before Jacob's arrival. She left Miss Peregrine's loop to be cared for by Miss Avocet.
Marcie: A young girl who was intent on leaving Miss Peregrine's loop. After leaving, she was kidnapped by a wight at the bus stop.
Victor Bruntley: Although his body was still in Miss Peregrine's home, Victor is considered a past resident after being murdered by a hollow. Brother of Bronwyn Bruntley. He was later properly buried.
Gallery
Trivia
A Most Peculiar Trip Searching for Miss Peregrine
Ransom's adventure to find the Peregrine house.
- The inspiration for the home for the peculiar children is an abandoned chateau called Hof Van Nottebom, which is located in Belgium. While writing Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children, Ransom first came across the house while looking for photos to inspire descriptions of Miss Peregrine's home.
- In 2011, Ransom made the trip to Europe to locate the house after his publisher had requested a trailer for his book. He met up with the Dutch urban explorer named Martino Zegwaard, whose photos he had come across on the Internet. The pair explored four different houses, the final house located in Luxenburg chosen as the center setting for the book trailer.
- For Ransom's birthday in 2014, his wife Tahereh surprised him with a model of the Miss Peregrine house that was custom made by Michael DelPriore of Ryerson Studios.
A model of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children