CITY MAN-JOURNEY

Kellie's Castle

A sad story enshrouds this long abandoned mammoth of a home.

The HISTORY Of Kellie's Castle

        

William Killie Smith was born in 1870 in Kellas, Moray Firth, Scotland. In 1890, at the age of 20, he arrived in Malaysia as a Civil Engineer. He joined Charles Alma Baker's survey form, who hod just won concessions from the state government to clear 9000 hectares of forests in Batu Gajah, Perak. With the substantial profits made from his business venture with Baker, Smith brought 1000 acres of jungle land in the district of Kinta and started planting rubber trees and dabbled in the tin mining industry.

            In time, he named his estate Kinta Kellas after his home farm "Easter Kellas" and went on to own the Kinta Kellas Tin Dredging Company as well. With his fortune made, he went back to marry his Scottish sweetheart, Agnes and brought her over to Malaysia in 1930. They had a daughter named Helen the next year.

            In 1909 Smith built his first mansion, “Kellas House” and in 1915 with the birth of his son and heir of Anthony, he started planning for a huge castle with Scottish, Moorish and Indian architecture. He brought 70 craftsmen and all the bricks and marble were from India.

            During construction, Spanish flu spread from Europe after the World War I killing many workers. Smith himself died of pneumonia during the short trip to Portugal in 1926. His wife Agnes returned home in Scotland and sold the castle to a British company. In the end, Kellas House later known as Kellie`s Castle or Kellie`s Forty and was never completed.

William Kellie Simth, the builder of Kellie's Castle

If this tower was ever completed it would probably be 7-storey high, the uncompleted mansion designed with 14 rooms, a 4-storey tower

FRIDAY, JULY  1, 2016.

By: WONG WEI FANG =）