Castle Wemyss

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Castle Wemyss was a large country house in Wemyss Bay in the Scottish administration unit Inverclyde . It is not to be confused with Wemyss Castle in Fife .

It stood at Wemyss Point on the south bank of the Firth of Clyde , where it turns south. Charles Wilsone Brown , a property developer who wanted to develop the land around Wemyss Bay, had it built around 1850. He added another 32 to the four villas at this point. This residential area was nicknamed “Little Glasgow” because they were rented to wealthy Glasgow merchants .

In 1860, Wilsone Brown sold the mansion to Sir John Burns , who later became Baron Inverclyde . Burns commissioned the architect Robert William Billings to convert the country house in the Scottish Baronial style. The original house was expanded to include an additional floor, new wings and a clock tower on the southeast corner.

Castle Wemyss became a popular destination for many well-known visitors, including Lord Shaftesbury , Anthony Trollope , General Sherman , Henry Morton Stanley , King Peter II of Yugoslavia , Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia and members of the British Royal Family .

It is certain that Trollope wrote part of his novella Barchester Towers in Wemyss Bay, and that "Portray Castle" in The Eustace Diamonds was based on Castle Wemyss. Whether this is true or not, Trollope puts Portray Castle in a similar place in the land and gives it a description similar to that of Castle Wemyss. Trollope also mentions the real Castle Wemyss in his travelogue How the 'Mastiffs' Went to Iceland , the description of a trip from the Clyde to Iceland in June / July 1878.

The house remained in the hands of the family until the death of the 4th Baron in 1957. Afterwards, no one in the family was able to pay for the maintenance of the huge property, and it was sold to a developer. The Inverkip Power Station was built in the northern part of the property.

Greenfield legislation ensured that while most of the property was built on when Wemyss Bay grew in the 1960s and 1970s, the house itself was left untouched. It slowly fell into disrepair, the roof was later covered to eliminate property tax, and in 1984 it was finally demolished. In the 1990s, the property was finally also built and all that remains of Castle Wemyss today is a damaged flight of stairs and a flagpole. A Chilean araucaria at the entrance had to be removed for security reasons. But the locally established Woodlands Trust has begun restoring the Victorian fern garden that was overgrown with rhododendrons . Specially created paths now run through the woods that directly adjoin the property of the former country house.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Anthony Trollope: The Eustace Diamonds . Chapter XXI: Ianthe's Soul .
  2. ^ Digitized version of How the 'Mastiffs' Went to Iceland . Internet Archive. Retrieved May 3, 2017.

Coordinates: 55 ° 53 '28 "  N , 4 ° 53' 48.8"  W.