View from NW Digital image of SU/848
SC 772699
Description View from NW Digital image of SU/848
Date 1982
Catalogue Number SC 772699
Category On-line Digital Images
Copy of SU 848
Scope and Content Swimming Pool from north-west, Skibo Castle, Highland This shows the north block on the left, with the swimming pool block on the right. The crowstepped gable of the north block has scrolls on each gable and is surmounted by a shell and possibly seaweed finial. The semicircular recess on the gable is divided into a large central arched window flanked by two oculus (round windows) and two smaller arched windows. The doorway and the windows on the ground floor are topped by hood-moulds that are designed to keep rainwater from dripping onto the bay underneath. The swimming pool block has three arched windows per bay and a buttress separates each bay. It was extremely unusual for a swimming pool to be constructed at a country house at this time. The north block originally contained the changing rooms and was probably where the swimming pool attendants had their office. Andrew Carnegie employed around 85 servants on his estate and he always ensured that he had a swimming pool attendant on duty to look after his family and guests. 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/772699
File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap
Attribution: © RCAHMS
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