Culzean Castle, Gas House. View of gas house gate from South-East.

Description Culzean Castle, Gas House. View of gas house gate from South-East.

Date 7/8/1991

Catalogue Number B 56332

Category Photographs and Off-line Digital Images

Copies SC 763963

Scope and Content Gate piers from south-east, Gas House, Culzean Castle, South Ayrshire This shows the gate piers which mark the entrance to the castle's private gasworks area next to the beach. Two circular stone columns are surmounted by battlements and conical 'roofs' like a pair of miniature towers. The design echoes the romantic castellated walls and mock-fortifications of the main building. Coal gas for lighting the estate was produced here by the gas manager, who lived in an adjacent cottage. This type of gas was used for lighting from the 1840s. In the early 1900s the gasworks were converted to produce acetylene gas. The Culzean gasworks indicate the modernity and wealth of the estate owner, and visitors would have been shown the facility as part of a tour of the grounds. Culzean Castle was remodelled by architect Robert Adam (1728-92) from 1777 onwards for David, 10th Earl of Cassilis. He extended the late 16th-century, L-plan tower-house in the Castellated style and added a drum tower in 1785. Adam also designed the Neo-Classical interior, oval staircase (built 1787), and adjacent home farm. The castle was extended to the west in 1875 by architects Wardrop & Reid, and restored in the 20th century for The National Trust for Scotland. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

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