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Wednesday, October 7, 2009

Kellie's Castle @ Ipoh

front view

Kellie's Castle
(sometimes also called Kellie's Folly) is located near Batu Gajah, and is about 20 minutes' drive from Ipoh, Perak and about few hours drive from Kuala Lumpur. The unfinished, ruined mansion, was built by a Scottish planter named William Kellie Smith


This unfinished South-Indian style Gothic mansion was started by an eccentric Scottish planter named William Kellie Smith. Built in 1915, Smith decided to commemorate the birth of his longed for son and heir by building a castle. Smith brought over many Indian workers to complete his architectural dream, which was to include an indoor tennis court, an elevator and a rooftop courtyard for parties. It also included a tunnel to a nearby Hindu temple, reflecting Smith's fascination with Hinduism. This feature gave rise to local folktales of hidden passages and secret rooms. About 1.5km away, the descendants of those Indian workers still live in the area, and maintain a temple which also includes a statue of Smith.



back view

However, after World War I, the Spanish flu decimated most of his workers, and Smith himself died of pneumonia, leaving his castle unfinished and his fortunes exhausted. The castle was sold by his grieving widow to a local company which now manages it as a tourist destination.

Sorry wasn't able to show the rest of the photos of the place, because most of the picture taken inside the place were mostly us posing a lot inside the place.

2 comments:

Borneo Falcon said...

Wish I had some time to visit this castle last month

M-Knight said...

yeah the place is great..

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