View from NW of stables with swimming pool in left background

Description View from NW of stables with swimming pool in left background

Date 7/1961

Catalogue Number SU 244/13

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies SC 772710

Scope and Content Coach Stables from north-west, Skibo Castle, Highland This shows a pair of two-storeyed dwelling houses, with the large louvered ventilator of the coach house visible on the right, and part of the swimming pool building on the left. The coach stables, probably built by Ross & Macbeth in the early 20th century, were originally built as an electric house and private telephone exchange for the castle. The building has crowstepped gables and octagonal chimney-stacks. The small crowstepped gablets above the windows on the second floor are topped with ball finials and the two central gablets are surmounted with models of wild beasts. The windows on the ground floor are topped by hood-moulds that are designed to keep rainwater from dripping onto the bay underneath. Andrew Carnegie had over 17 cars stored in various garages throughout the estate. These cars were used by Carnegie and his family and also by his guests. Carnegie employed car washers, mechanics and chauffeurs to look after the cars and it seems likely that these may have been homes for the chauffeurs and their families. Andrew Carnegie (1835-1919) was born in Scotland and made a fortune in the steel industry in the United States of America. Once his daughter was born he decided that she should have a Scottish home, and at the end of the 19th century he bought a large Baronial house at Skibo built in 1880 by Clarke & Bell. In addition to the £85,000 purchase price, he spent a further £2 million in the creation of an even larger mansion, constructed between 1899 and 1903 to the designs of Ross & Macbeth. In 1981 his daughter Margaret decided to sell the estate, and the castle lay empty until 1990 when Peter de Savary paid £10 million for the castle and the 2,832-hectare estate. Some £30 million was then invested in its transformation into the Carnegie Club, a private residential golf and sporting club. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/242532