Wednesday, June 25

Kinloch Castle with Foof and Faff


Hi, I'm Elise and I blog over at Foof and Faff.  I post mainly about places I've been visiting around Scotland, along with a mixture of outfits, knitting and random life updates.  When the girls here asked me to do a guest post I knew immediately what I wanted to blog about - Kinloch Castle.  My boyfriend and I recently took a trip up the west coast of Scotland to do a bit of a tour, and this was one of my favourite places we stopped at.  Trying to condense all the pictures was too hard, so I'm glad I have an excuse to post more now!

Kinloch Castle is really more of a country house estate, built on the Isle of Rum in the late 1800s by George Bullough, a rich textile merchant from England.  He and his wife Monica spent summers here, and when she died in the 1960s she left the island and property to Scottish Natural Heritage.  Being that they're obviously more into the outdoor aspect of the place, Historic Scotland and the National Trust for Scotland also advise on conservation concerning the house.  Our tour guide there was super informative and clearly very interested in history of the place so we got a good insight into the life of the house.  It's a strange mixture of grand and shabby - they lack the funds to completely restore the house so while the original fixtures and furniture are all in place, they look very old and lived in.  It's perfect for imagining life as it would have been one hundred years ago! 






It was typical country house for the most part, with stag heads on the walls, dark wood furnishings and rich fat couches.  Oh, and the most amazing game room.  My favourite part of the house though, was an organ built into the space under the stairs.  His very own musical house!  Sadly it was too old to play properly so we didn't get to hear it, but we were assured it makes a crazy amount of noise - apparently Sir George used to wake his guests up with bagpipe playing, but when they made it clear that it wasn't appreciated, he got this put in instead...






The ballroom was so beautiful, I was transported back to memories of reading Pride and Prejudice and imagining them in a room just like this.  Even the bathroom was amazing, with a huge, multi functional Victorian shower and the most gorgeous square sink.  

Afterwards we walked around the outside of the house and had a nosy in some of the windows - because I can't leave a place knowing I've only seen bits of it.  Outside I stumbled across these gates with Monica's initials, which left me wondering where they once led to...


Thanks for reading everyone!  Visit my blog and Tam's blog for more pictures of Scottish adventures!


1 comment:

  1. Fantastic post and such great photographs. It's crazy to think that people really used to live in places like this! I especially love the photo of the gate leading nowhere - so pretty but sort of spooky at the same time.

    x

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