Culzean Castle

**Culzean Castle** is a castle overlooking the Firth of Clyde, near Maybole, Carrick, on the Ayrshire coast of Scotland. It is the former home of the Marquess of Ailsa, the chief of Clan Kennedy, but is now owned by the National Trust for Scotland. The clifftop castle lies within the Culzean Castle Country Park and is opened to the public.
Since 1987, an illustration of the castle has featured on the reverse side of five pound notes issued by the Royal Bank of Scotland.

## History

Culzean Castle was constructed as an L-plan castle by order of the 10th Earl of Cassilis. He instructed the architect Robert Adam to rebuild a previous, but more basic, structure into a fine country house to be the seat of his earldom. The castle was built in stages between 1777 and 1792. It incorporates a large drum tower with a circular saloon inside (which overlooks the sea), a grand oval staircase and a suite of well-appointed apartments.

In 1945, the Kennedy family gave the castle and its grounds to the National Trust for Scotland (thus avoiding inheritance tax). In doing so, they stipulated that the apartment at the top of the castle be given to General of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower in recognition of his role as Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe during the Second World War. The General first visited Culzean Castle in 1946 and stayed there four times, including once while President of the United States.

The Ayrshire (Earl of Carrick's Own) Yeomanry, a British Yeomanry cavalry regiment, was formed by The Earl of Cassillis at Culzean Castle in about 1794. On 24 June 1961, the regiment returned to the castle to be presented with its first guidon by General Sir Horatius Murray, KBE, CB, DSO.

The castle re-opened in April 2011 after a refurbishment funded by a gift in the will of American millionaire William Lindsay to the National Trust for Scotland. Lindsay, who had never visited Scotland, requested that a significant portion of his $4 million go towards Culzean. Lindsay was reportedly interested in Eisenhower's holidays at the castle.

Culzean Castle received 244,930 visitors in 2017.

## Features

The armoury contains a propellor from a plane flown by Leefe Robinson when he shot down a German airship north of London in 1916.

To the north of the castle is a bay containing the *Gas House*, which provided town gas for the castle up until 1940. This group of buildings consists of the gas manager's house (now containing an exhibition on William Murdoch), the Retort House and the remains of the gasometer.

There are sea caves beneath the castle which are currently not open generally, but are open for tours throughout the summer.

The castle grounds include a walled garden, which is built on the site of the home of a former slave owned by the Kennedy family, Scipio Kennedy.

## Legends and rumors

The Castle is reputed to be home to at least seven ghosts, including a piper and a servant girl. Other stories involve a dark apparition going up the stairs from the ground floor to the first, and a portrait of Margaret Erskine of Dun that appears to "watch" visitors as they walk past.

## Film and television appearances

Culzean Castle is used as the castle of Lord Summerisle (played by Christopher Lee) in the 1973 cult film *The Wicker Man*. The scenes here were filmed between October and November 1972.

Culzean Castle featured in the PBS documentary series *Castles of Scotland* in 1997.

The *Most Haunted* team led by Yvette Fielding, Karl Beattie and medium Derek Acorah explored Culzean Castle's paranormal stories and reported sightings of ghosts for an episode of the first series, broadcast on Living TV in 2002.

The BBC TV *Coast* programme visited in series 2 episode 3 first shown in November 2009.

The Castle appeared on the programme "The Little Couple" from TLC , where the family visited the castle on the Series 9 pilot episode.

## Uses

The castle is used for accommodation and wedding ceremonies.

## References

1. ↑ RBS - Banknotes - The Ilay Series. RBS Group. Retrieved on 23 May 2013.
2. ↑ Current Banknotes : Royal Bank of Scotland. The Committee of Scottish Clearing Bankers. Retrieved on 2008-10-17.
3. ↑ BBC News - Culzean Castle benefits from US millionaire's legacy
4. ↑ Love of 'Brigadoon' inspires Vegas tycoon to leave fortune to Scotland - News, People - The Independent
5. ↑ ALVA - Association of Leading Visitor Attractions. Retrieved on 1 May 2018.
6. ↑ Culzean Castle small gas plant. CIBSE Heritage Group. Retrieved on 23 May 2013.
7. ↑ Event: Explore Culzean's Caves. Carrick Ayrshire website. Archived from the original on 5 May 2015. Retrieved on 23 May 2013.
8. ↑ "Dig for freed slave's castle home", *BBC News Glasgow and West*, 26 October 2007. Retrieved on 29 December 2014.
9. ↑ BBC - Halloween happenings in your area
10. ↑ Scotland’s most haunted - Herald Scotland | News | Home News
11. ↑ THINGS THAT GO BUMP IN THE NIGHT They are creatures of the dark, lingering in the recesses of Scotland's most historic locations. Their antics would raise the hair on a newly ...
12. ↑ https://www.nts.org.uk/stories/the-ghosts-of-culzean-castle
13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 Scottish Castles - Culzean Castle
14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 Culzean Castle, Ayrshire & Arran | WhichCastle.com
15. ↑ BBC TV Coast programme: Arran to Gretna: music used in this programme. Retrieved on 23 May 2013.

## External links

* Culzean Castle - visitor information at the NTS website.
* Papers of the National Trust of Scotland (Dwight D. Eisenhower's Culzean Castle apartment), Dwight D. Eisenhower Presidential Library
* Engraving of Cullean castle by James Fittler in the digitised copy of Scotia Depicta, or the antiquities, castles, public buildings, noblemen and gentlemen's seats, cities, towns and picturesque scenery of Scotland, 1804 at National Library of Scotland