Interior Specimen bell push and light switch

Description Interior Specimen bell push and light switch

Date 1982

Catalogue Number SU 760

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies SC 772649

Scope and Content Light switch and bell pushes, Skibo Castle, Highland This shows an electric light switch on the left and three bell pushes on the right which, once pressed, would have summoned the butler (left), ladysmaid (centre) or housemaid (right). The bell pushes are connected by electric cables to a bell and indicator panel in a corridor near service rooms. This bell would ring and the indicator panel would show in which room the servant was needed. Country houses could easily be fitted with a wire and lever bell-pull system by the end of the 18th century. Electric servant bell systems were developed in the late 19th century and were a vast improvement on the old system which was liable to become clogged with dust and needed regular servicing. Skibo Castle had its own estate electric house. 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.

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