View from NW

Description View from NW

Date 1982

Catalogue Number SU 854

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies SC 772702

Scope and Content Dairy House from north-west, Skibo Castle, Highland This shows the c.1900 wing which contained the dairy room and the cool room in the foreground with the dwelling house in the background. The bell-shaped roof (bellcast) is supported with rustic logs and it originally had three octagonal louvered ventilators with double curved (ogee) tops, of which two remain. The dairy room is where butter and cheese would be made and cream separated from the milk. These products would then be placed in the cool room to keep them fresh. The mass production of dairy products in factories from the 19th century and the hygiene laws of the 20th century meant the end of country houses having working dairies. 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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