- Type
- Palace / château
- Location
- Scotland, United Kingdom
- Architect
- Alexander Ross
- Coordinates
- 57.8730°, -4.1323°
History
The castle is first recorded in 1211 and for more than three centuries the Bishops of Caithness lived here. In 1545, fearing the spread of the Reformation in the north, the Church handed the estate to John Gray to secure the support of a powerful family; the Grays gave it up in 1745, and a relative built a new house here before 1760. After many changes of owner the estate was bought in 1898 for £85,000 by the Scottish-born industrialist Andrew Carnegie, who then spent a fortune on a rebuilding carried out by the Inverness architect Alexander Ross – the house grew almost fourfold and gained its own power station, an indoor swimming pool, an artificial loch and a golf course. The Carnegie family kept Skibo until 1982, after which the businessman Peter de Savary turned it into an exclusive club, bought in 2003 by Ellis Short, who funded a thorough restoration of the estate.
What to see
The castle is run as The Carnegie Club, open only to members and their guests, so there are no ordinary visits. Prospective members may apply for a one-off stay, and between May and October outside players can book a few rounds on the links course, which lies on a peninsula between Loch Evelix and the Dornoch Firth. The building is listed Category A, and its grounds appear in Scotland's Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes.
Wikipedia article Wikidata Q2252914
Popularity: articles about this site in 13 Wikimedia projects (Wikipedia language editions and others).