Kellie's Castle

Kellie's Castle is located near Batu Gajah, Perak. It is easily spotted en-route from Ipoh to Batu Gajah - Route A8. The unfinished, ruined mansion, was built by a Scottish planter named William Kellie Smith in 1915.



Because of his fascination with the Hindu religion and Indian culture, Smith's plan was for this house to share similar architecture to those of Madras, with all its bricks and tiles imported from India. He even employed a big group of Indian labourers to build his dream house.

But it was not only the cost of importing material and labourers from abroad that made the house so fascinating to locals and travelers alike. Among the many amazing things about Kellie's Castle are an elevator (it was the first in Malaya) which connects right up to the top floor, and the existence of two tunnels that run under the river nearby. One of these tunnels connects to the Hindu temple some distance away from the main house. On the second floor, Smith planned to build an indoor tennis court — an ambitious project even by today's standards. On the highest floor, there is a rooftop courtyard for parties. This castle was to be the hub for entertaining wealthy colonial planters who had settled in Malaya. His house was so unique that it was even mentioned in the London Financier newspaper on 15 September 1911



Unfortunately for Smith, tragedies struck soon after the construction of the Kellas House began. A virulent strain of the Spanish flu spread from Europe to Asia soon after World War I ended, killing many of the workers in the Kellas Estate.

In the end, Kellas House, later known as Kellie's Castle, was never completed. William Kellie Smith himself died of pneumonia during a short trip to Portugal in 1926. His heartbroken wife decided to pack up and return home to Scotland selling the estate and Kellie's Castle to a British company called Harrisons and Crosfield.

Descendants of the Tamil labourers brought over to Malaya to work on the mansion still live nearby even now. Kellie's Castle is now a popular local tourist attraction and was used as a setting in the 1999 film Anna and the King

ticket : RM4 -Malaysian adult

RM2 -Malaysian children

RM10-Non-Malaysian

note: info copied & pasted from Wikipedia