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| Kellie's Castle | |
|---|---|
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 Interactive map of Kellie's Castle | |
| General information | |
| Architectural style |
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| Location | Batu Gajah, Malaysia |
| Construction started | 1910 |
| Completed | Construction ended on 11 December 1926, before completion |
| Landlord | William Kellie-Smith |
| Technical details | |
| Floor count | 3 |
Kellie's Castle (sometimes also calledKellie's Folly) is a castle located inBatu Gajah, Kinta District, Perak, Malaysia. The unfinished, ruined mansion was built by the Scottish planterWilliam Kellie-Smith. According to differing accounts, it was either a gift for his wife or a home for his son. Kellie's Castle is situated beside the Raya River (Sungai Raya), which is a small creek to theKinta River.
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William Kellie-Smith (1870–1926)[1] was born in 1870 inKellas, Moray Firth, Scotland. In 1890, at the age of 20, he arrived inMalaya as acivil engineer. He joinedCharles Alma Baker's survey firm, who had won concessions from the state government to clear 9,000 hectares of forests inBatu Gajah, Perak. With the substantial profits made from his business venture with Baker, Kellie-Smith bought 1,000 acres (405 ha) of jungle land in the district of Kinta and started plantingrubber trees and dabbled in thetin mining industry.
In time, he named his estate "Kinta Kellas" after his home farm, "Easter Kellas". Kellie-Smith went on to own the Kinta Kellas Tin Dredging Company as well. With his fortune made, he returned to Scotland to marry, and he brought his wife, Agnes, to Malaya in 1903.[2] They had a daughter the following year.
Construction on a mansion called Kellas House started in 1910. With the birth of a son in 1915, Kellie-Smith began planning for a huge castle withMoorish,Indo-Saracenic, andRoman designs.[2]
He brought in 70 craftsmen fromMadras,India, and all the bricks and marble were also imported from India. The plan included a four-floored building with 14 rooms and an elevator (Malaya's first). It also showed underground tunnels, secret rooms, a tennis court, a wine cellar, and hidden stairways.[2][3]
In 1918, a virulent strain ofSpanish flu struck the workmen.[2] When they approached Kellie-Smith to build atemple nearby, he readily agreed. In return for his generosity, they built a statue of him beside the other deities on the temple wall. It is believed that a tunnel was built to the temple from the castle. Descendants of theTamil labourers brought over to Malaya to work on the mansion still live nearby.[citation needed]
Kellie-Smith died at the age of 56 ofpneumonia during a short trip toLisbon, Portugal, in 1926. His wife was devastated and decided to move back to Scotland; construction on the castle was never completed, and the structure was left abandoned in the jungle.[2] In the end, Kellas House, later known as "Kellie's Folly", or "Kellie's Castle", was sold to the British companyHarrisons and Crosfield.[3]
Nowadays, Kellie's Castle is a local tourist attraction. It was used as a setting in the 1999 filmAnna and the King and in 2001'sSkyline Cruisers.[4]
In 2015, it was the site of the first-ever24-hour comic challenge in a castle.[5]
4°28′27.7″N101°05′16.1″E / 4.474361°N 101.087806°E /4.474361; 101.087806