Kinloch Castle

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Kinloch Castle

Kinloch Castle ( Scottish Gaelic : Caisteal Cheann Locha ) is a country house on the island of Rùm , one of the Inner Hebrides off the west coast of Scotland . The area belongs to the Highland administrative unit . The Victorian house was built as the private residence of Sir George Bullough, 1st Baronet , a Lancashire textile baron whose father bought the Isle of Rùm as a summer residence and hunting ground. Construction began in 1897 and the house was finished in 1900. The luxury retreat has suffered since then. The country house and island now belong to the Scottish Natural Heritage and part of the country house serves as a hotel. The Kinloch Castle Friends Association was founded in 1996 to ensure the building's future for the long term.

Historic Scotland has Kinloch Castle listed as a Category A Historic Building and the surrounding land is listed on the Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland .

history

At the beginning of the 19th century, Rùm belonged to Alexander MacLean from Coll . At that time, during the coalition wars , Laminariales from the Scottish Isles were considered a valuable raw material for the production of soda for use in explosives. After the wars, prices collapsed and MacLean was forced to lease the island to a relative, Lachlan MacLean , to raise sheep. As a result, the entire population, 443 in 1795, was expelled from the island in 1828 . New tenants came from the islands of Skye and Muck to raise sheep.

Lachlan MacLean had Kinloch House built on land northeast of what is now Kinloch Castle, but had to give up the lease in the late 1830s. Hugh MacLean of Coll then sold the island in 1845 to the conservative politician James Gascoyne-Cecil, 2nd Marquess of Salisbury , (1791–1868) for £ 26,455. Lord Salisbury reorganized sheep breeding and built new farmhouses connected by a road to a pier in Kinloch. Lord Salisbury also brought red deer and other game back to the island. He bequeathed the estate to his son, Viscount Carnborne , (1821-1865). After his death he fell to his brother, Robert Gascoyne-Cecil , who later became the 3rd Marquess of Salisbury and Prime Minister of the United Kingdom . But this sold Rùm in 1870 to Farquhar Campbell from Aros . The hunting lodge at Tigh Ban was built around this time.

The Bulloughs

From 1879 the hunting rights were taken over by John Bullough (1838-1891), an owner of a textile mill in Perthshire . In 1884 Bullough bought Meggernie Castle in Perthshire and in 1888 the Isle of Rùm for £ 35,000. He planned to create a hunting ground, introduced new deer and wild birds, and had trees planted. When he died in 1891, his son George Bullough inherited the island and had a mausoleum built for his father. The first mausoleum decorated with ceramic tiles was compared to a public toilet, and Bullough then had it demolished and replaced with a Doric temple, which is still preserved today.

The Bullough Mausoleum in Harris

Then he hired a London architecture firm, Leeming & Leeming , to build a luxurious new home. Work on Kinloch Castle began in 1897; 300 men from the Isle of Eigg and Lancashire were hired to build it . The country house was built in the Tudor style , with battlements , from red sandstone from Annan . It had its own power supply, modern plumbing technology, modern heating and modern telephone systems. A mechanical orchestrion from Germany was installed to provide music in the knight's hall . Kinloch Castle was completed in 1900 and cost £ 250,000 to build, although other changes were made after Bullough's marriage in 1903. Formal and informal gardens, such as a water garden, a Japanese garden , a bowling green and a golf course , were laid out on topsoil from Ayrshire until 1912 . An enclosed garden with greenhouses was built; alligators were also housed there for a short time .

During the Boer War , Bullough made his yacht Rhouma available as a hospital ship that brought wounded soldiers to Kinloch Castle. For this service he was knighted in 1901. Kinloch Castle was used by Bullough and his friends every year for the hunting season, but after World War I they came less often and the property was neglected. The island's population decreased from 100 in 1900 to 28 in 1951. After Sir George Bullough's death in 1939, the mansion and island were managed by trustees who sold the property in 1957 and kept only the family mausoleum. In 1967 Sir George Bullough's widow Monica was buried in the mausoleum next to her husband.

In public hands

The island was bought by the Nature Conservancy , a government agency responsible for natural heritage, for £ 23,000 and designated a National Conservation Area in accordance with Lady Monica's last will . The ownership of the island of Rùm and the country house Kinloch Castle was transferred to the Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) in 1992.

The country house appeared in the BBC TV series Restoration in 2003 as part of an appeal for donations to renovate the building; the object reached the last round but did not win. Nonetheless, the case was picked up by The Prince's Regeneration Trust , a non-profit organization that carries out renovation projects on historic buildings and was founded by Prince Charles . A sum of £ 8 million is needed for the restoration of the country house.

Social relevance

A report published by the SMH in 2002 summarized the social significance of Kinloch Castle and the different attitudes towards it as follows:

“Kinloch Castle is of extremely high social importance, both as a representative of a kind of development and lifestyle that had a considerable influence on the use of land in Scotland, and in connection with a special social history that in itself is splendid, hers Notoriety and its unusual completeness, in which evidence of the lifestyle has been preserved, is of interest. "

The report indicated that Kinloch Castle had no particular style or technical merit, but this was offset by the fact that it was a memorial to a certain type of social lifestyle of its time.

“Kinloch Castle has an externally uninspired style with an unusual, but not impossible floor plan, built by clearly competent, but nevertheless indistinguishable architects who - in a certain sense -“ prisoners ”of the strong will of their customers to the detriment of the overall concept (... ) were. In terms of general construction engineering, Kinloch Castle was no advance on common practice. "

The sociopolitical monument it represents has [been described] as "an extreme example, or even an example, of the worst kind of landlord thinking in the Highlands" and also as "a representative of a social phenomenon for which his [Bulloughs] days were known. : New wealth in the 3rd generation, opulent lifestyle, sports interests including horse racing and belonging to an “intelligent” class of society (which saw the brilliant but delusional Edward, Prince of Wales , as their example) rather than the turn to Victorian morality. "

Jim Cowley , Scottish nature writer, described Kinloch Castle as “a monument to (...) colossal wealth, ego and greed (...) it is a building with no repairable details (...), a hated structure. It just continues the memory of the worst kind of island lairds (...), a hideous affront, but nothing that a fine fire and subsequent demolition could not fix ”.

Current usage

Entrance hall

Kinloch Castle is now managed by Scottish Natural Heritage with support from the Kinloch Castle Friends' Association , a registered, non-profit organization founded in 1996. Some repairs were carried out in 2010 and 2011, but the future of the building remains uncertain.

Part of the building at the rear of the country house is used as a guest house for visitors to the island. A number of bedrooms with loft beds are available for guests or they can choose from a number of "Oak Rooms" with four- bed beds . The guest house is separated from the museum rooms in the country house. There was a proposal to close the guest house in 2012.

There are guided tours of the country house, the times of which have been coordinated with the ferry timetable where possible. Tour highlights include the orchestrion under the stairs and a range of gifts from the Japanese Emperor.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Listed Building - Entry . In: Historic Scotland .
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h Garden and Designed Landscape - entry . In: Historic Scotland .
  3. ↑ Rùm National Nature Reserve: Kinloch Castle . SNH Publications. S. 7. 1999. Retrieved October 18, 2017.
  4. ↑ a b c d Rùm National Nature Reserve: Kinloch Castle . SNH Publications. S. 10. 1999. Retrieved October 18, 2017.
  5. ↑ Rùm National Nature Reserve: Kinloch Castle . SNH Publications. S. 18. 1999. Retrieved October 18, 2017.
  6. ↑ Rùm National Nature Reserve: Kinloch Castle . SNH Publications. S. 13. 1999. Retrieved October 18, 2017.
  7. ↑ Listed Building - Entry . In: Historic Scotland .
  8. ↑ Kinloch Castle Revival . In: Architectural Digest . October 2008.
  9. ^ A b Page & Park Architects: Kinloch Castle, Isle of Rum: Conservation, Management and Business Plan Proposals relating to Proposals for Future of Kinloch Castle . SMH. November 2002. Retrieved October 18, 2017.
  10. ↑ Rùm National Nature Reserve: Kinloch Castle . SNH Publications. S. 35. 1999. Retrieved October 18, 2017.
  11. ↑ a b website . Kinloch Castle Friends' Association. Retrieved October 18, 2017.

Web links

Commons : Kinloch Castle  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Coordinates: 57 ° 0 ′ 49 ″  N , 6 ° 16 ′ 57 ″  W.