Kinloch Castle facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Kinloch Castle |
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Kinloch Castle
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Listed Building – Category A
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| Designated | 15 October 1971 |
| Reference no. | LB14125 |
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Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland
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| Designated | 31 March 2003 |
| Reference no. | GDL00242 |
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Kinloch Castle (Scottish Gaelic: Caisteal Cheann Locha) is a grand old house from the late Victorian times. It sits on the island of Rùm, which is one of the Small Isles off the west coast of Scotland. A very wealthy man named Sir George Bullough built it as his private home. He was a successful businessman in the textile industry. His father had bought Rùm to use as a summer home and a place for hunting.
Building the castle started in 1897 and finished in 1900. Kinloch Castle was once a very fancy place, but it has become a bit worn over time. Today, the castle and the island belong to Scottish Natural Heritage. They used to run a hostel in part of the castle until 2015. They still offer tours of the main rooms for visitors to explore. A group called the Kinloch Castle Friends Association was started in 1996. Their goal is to help protect the building for the future.
Kinloch Castle is a special building, protected as a category A listed building. This means it's very important historically. The land around it is also special. It's part of the Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland. This is a national list of important gardens and landscapes.
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Kinloch Castle's History
The island of Rùm was owned by Alexander Maclean of Coll in the early 1800s. During the Napoleonic Wars, a plant called kelp from Scottish islands was very valuable. It was used to make soda ash for explosives. After the war, kelp prices dropped. Maclean had to rent the island to a relative, Lachlan Maclean, for sheep farming.
Because of this, almost everyone who lived on the island was forced to leave by 1828. This event was part of the Highland clearances. New people were brought in from Skye and Muck to work on the sheep farm.
Lachlan Maclean built Kinloch House, which was near where the castle is now. But he had to give up his lease in the late 1830s. Then, in 1845, Hugh Maclean of Coll sold the island for £26,455. The buyer was a politician named James Gascoyne-Cecil, 2nd Marquess of Salisbury.
Lord Salisbury made changes to the sheep farm. He built new small houses and roads leading to a pier at Kinloch. He also brought back red deer and other game animals for hunting. His son, Viscount Cranborne, inherited the estate. After his son's death, it went to his brother, Robert Gascoyne-Cecil, 3rd Marquess of Salisbury. He later became the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. However, he sold Rùm in 1870 to Farquhar Campbell. Around this time, a hunting lodge called Tigh Ban was built.
The Bullough Family and the Castle
In 1879, John Bullough (1838–1891) started renting the hunting rights on Rùm. He owned textile factories in England. In 1888, he bought Rùm for £35,000. He wanted to create a great hunting area. He brought in new deer and game birds and planted many trees.
When John Bullough died in 1891, his son George Bullough inherited the island. George built a special tomb, called a mausoleum, for his father on the island. The first one was covered in ceramic tiles and people made fun of it. So, Bullough had it taken down. He replaced it with the beautiful Doric temple you can see today.
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George Bullough then hired architects from London to design a very luxurious new house. Work on Kinloch Castle began in 1897. About 300 men from Eigg and England worked on it. The house was built in a castellated Tudor style, using red sandstone from the Isle of Arran.
The castle had its own electricity, which was very modern for the time. It also had up-to-date plumbing, heating, and even telephone systems. A special musical machine, called a mechanical orchestrion, was brought from Germany. It played music in the main hall. Kinloch Castle was finished in 1900. It cost a huge amount of money, about £250,000. More changes were made after Bullough got married in 1903.
Fancy gardens were created by 1912. These included a water garden, a Japanese garden, a bowling green, and even a golf course. They used topsoil brought all the way from Ayrshire. There was also a walled garden with glasshouses. For a short time, these glasshouses even held alligators!
During the Second Boer War, Bullough let his yacht, Rhouma, be used as a hospital ship. It brought injured soldiers back to Kinloch Castle. Because of this help, he was made a knight in 1901. Sir George Bullough and his friends used the castle during the hunting season each year. But they visited less often after the First World War, and the estate was not looked after as well. The number of people living on the island went down from 100 in 1900 to just 28 in 1951.
After Sir George Bullough died in 1939, the castle and island were looked after by trustees. In 1957, they sold the estate, but kept the family mausoleum. In 1967, Sir George's wife, Monica, was buried at the mausoleum next to her husband.
Kinloch Castle in Public Hands
The Nature Conservancy, a government group that looks after nature, bought the island for £23,000. Rùm was then made a National Nature Reserve, just as Lady Bullough had wanted. When Scottish Natural Heritage (SNH) was formed in 1992, they took over ownership of Rùm and Kinloch Castle.
The castle was featured on the BBC TV show Restoration in 2003. This was part of an effort to get money to fix up the building. It made it to the final stages of the competition. Even though it didn't win, the Prince's Regeneration Trust later took up its cause. This charity, started by Prince Charles, helps bring old buildings back to life. They tried to raise £8 million to restore the castle, but this plan did not go ahead.
What Kinloch Castle is Used For Today
Today, Scottish Natural Heritage manages Kinloch Castle. They get help from the Kinloch Castle Friends' Association, a charity set up in 1996. Some repairs were done in 2010 and 2011. However, the long-term future of the building is still uncertain.
You can still take tours of the castle. These tours are often planned to match ferry times. On the tour, you can see the orchestrion, the musical machine, and special gifts from the Emperor of Japan.
A part of the castle at the back used to be a hostel for visitors to the island. Guests could stay in bunk rooms or choose "Oak Rooms" with fancy four-poster beds. The hostel area was kept separate from the museum parts of the castle. The hostel closed in 2015.
In 2017, the Kinloch Castle Friends' Association started looking into creating a Community Interest Company. This would be a special type of company that could take over running the castle from SNH. In March 2018, the association decided to officially ask to take over the castle and its contents. Their first goal is to reopen the hostel. This would help make money to support the castle while they look for bigger funding for major restoration work.
Why Kinloch Castle is Important
A report from 2002 by SNH explained why Kinloch Castle is so important. It said the castle shows a certain way of life and type of development that was very influential in Scotland. It also has a special history, known for its glamour and how much of that old lifestyle has survived.
The report mentioned that the castle itself wasn't special in its design or building methods. But its importance comes from being a reminder of a certain social lifestyle from that time. It represents a period when very rich people, often with new wealth, lived very grand lives. They enjoyed sports like horse racing and were part of the "smart" social scene.
