Interior Detail of specimen shower unit Digital image of SU/845

Description Interior Detail of specimen shower unit Digital image of SU/845

Date 1982

Catalogue Number SC 772694

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of SU 845

Scope and Content Shower unit, Swimming Pool, Skibo Castle, Highland This shows one of several showers that were situated in the c.1900 swimming pool building. Hot and cold water pipes extended from the ceiling down to the taps on the right of the unit. The water flowed along the pipes that are pierced with holes and up to the showerhead. This allowed a person to be sprayed with water from the sides and top. The Victorians developed hand-pumping devices for showers and perhaps the most ingenious was the 'Velo-douche' which was invented in the 1890s. A person sat on a bicycle frame and the energy generated by the person pedalling pumped water from the tub below to the showerhead above their head. The shower shown was operated by the pressure of the flowing water. 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/772694

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap