Kellies Castle
The 100-years-old castle
Somewhere near Batu Gajah, suburb of Ipoh, stood the Kellies Castle surrounding by river.
It was intended to be the hub of social life for the area's wealthy
colonial planters and administrators - a grand mansion with a six-storey
tower, wine cellar, and stately columns. Moorish arches and walls
embellished with Greco-Roman designs.
There was to be a rooftop
courtyard for parties, a helicopter landing space and even the first
shaft lift in the country to connect the underground tunnel up to the
top floor.
History of the never completed castle...
William Kellie Smith, born in Dallas, North-Eastern Scotland to a
farmer and his wife on 1st of March, 1870. At the tender age of 20, he
traveled to Malaya (old name of Malaysia) to seek for his fortune.
This
had proven to be a wise choice, since he was soon engaged by an estate
owner to help in the construction of public roads in South Perak and
gathered some fortune from his share of the venture's profits. With this
capital, he bought over nearly 1000 acres of jungle land in the Kinta
District, and cleared it to become rubber estate named.
Followed by his success in rubber plantation, the Smith brought over
his family to stay at his first mansion in Malaya, Kellas House which
built in 1905 as symbol of his prospering rubber estate venture.
Later
in 1915 with the birth of a son and heir, Smith decided to build the
Kellies Castle (just in front of the Kellas House). It is believed to be
a gift for his wife or for the birth of his son - Anthony.
Halt of the construction...
70 tough workers, mostly from Madras, were employed. Bricks and
marble were imported from India. But the construction work was not
smooth, a mysterious illness (Spanish Flu) broke out and killed many of
the workers.
The superstitious Smith was told that a temple must
be built to appease the gods. He immediately transferred his workers to
build a Hindu temple nearby, and there is an underground tunnel lying
beneath the castle to the temple.
This tunnel was discovered
accidentally during a road widening exercise at the 6th kilometer
stretch of the Gopeng-Batu Gajah road in 2003. An excavator broke
through the timber structure and revealed a section of a tunnel. The
passageway is about 1.5m height and 1m wide. The tunnel is believed to
go under the river and connecting the castle to the Hindu temple.
Anyway,
this tragedy didn't stop the construction of the castle. But the sudden
death of Smith on a visit to Lisbon in 1926 had made a halt to it. He
was died of pneumonia. His wife, Agnes, with a broken heart made the
decision to sell out all of the Smith's properties in Malaya and moved
back to Scotland sadly.