2022
Hello, Fellow Local Guides, Apa Khabar?
16th September is Malaysia Day. First, I would like to wish all Malaysians a joyous celebration. Malaysia Day, In Malaysia, is a public holiday. So that we are, a few Local guides @SumaiyaZafrin had a plan for a day trip, and the destination is Ipoh, Malaysia. We have finalized our trip plan with help from Google Maps and Local Guides friend. We have created a list of the tourist attractions in Ipoh. Based on that our first Location was Kellie’s Castle.
Caption: The journey starts in the very early morning to avoid the traffic.
Kellie’s Castle in Perak’s Batu Gajah near Ipoh combines romance, tragedy, and mystery. Young Scotsman William Kellie Smith moved to British Malaya, now Malaysia made and lost his fortune, and left an unfinished mansion to be reclaimed by the jungle. 
Caption: It takes three hours to reach due to high traffic.
Based on the Wiki and Internet sources I am here with the Story of Kellie’s Castle.
Malaya’s eccentric Scotsman William Smith was born in Elgin, Scotland, and grew up on a farm in the nearby village of Dallas. As the 3rd of 5 children in a humble farm-working family, few would have imagined that he would progress far in life but fortune must have been smiling on young William. At the tender age of 20 he, like many other Scots of his generation driven by desperation and a spirit of adventure, set sail for Malaya to seek his fortune.
He started out as a civil engineer and worked with Charles Alma Baker, another soon-to-be famous Batu Gajah resident, on road building and forest clearing projects and in the lucrative business of contract surveying. In 1893 he worked with the Kinta Valley Railway as an assistant engineer before becoming a government contractor. Following a spate of bad luck with failed businesses and the dwindling coffee industry, William’s future at best looked bleak. But life turns on a dime and his investment in rubber plantations quickly saw William rise to the peak of wealth. A quick return to Scotland prompted by his mother’s terminal health came with a positive twist – William met Agnes, his future wife. Back in Malaya, he decided to build his wife a mansion. The Smith family soon had two children, a daughter named Helen, and Anthony his son.
William’s mansion: Kellie’s Castle William had a passion for the weird and wonderful. Kellie’s Castle combines several styles. Look closely and see Moorish, Indo-Saracenic and Roman influences. He imported several Tamil workers and bricks and marble from India. William had a dream. He wanted the biggest and most opulent mansion in Malaya to spite the other snobbish bureaucrats who once doubted his wealth and ability in more desperate times. And he dreamed big. The mansion itself was several stories high with a huge planned tower, an indoor tennis court, and even a rooftop entertainment complex to host parties. It almost had Malaya’s first-ever elevator. Almost. But William’s destiny wasn’t to be as once more his life turned on a dime. Poor investments dwindled his wealth and souring relationships with the other administrators made his future look bleak. A tragic end His bad luck culminated in 1926. On a routine trip back to Europe to collect his elevator, William Kellie Smith contracted pneumonia. He died suddenly at the age of 56 in Lisbon, leaving the mansion to his wife and children. Understandably, the grief-stricken family didn’t want to return to Malaya. The Kellie Estate was sold to a Liverpool-based trading company to grow coffee and tea. The new owners didn’t waste their money on completing the mansion. Instead, Kellie’s Castle stood neglected and derelict. The jungle soon surrounded and swallowed it. The unfinished Kellie’s Castle became lost to time.
Mysterious circumstances Kellie’s Castle is shrouded in mystery. Three secret tunnels were discovered with more believed to be hidden. According to eyewitnesses, a car was parked inside one of the passageways in the 1960s. But nothing was ever found or verified as to who the car belonged to. Other rumors tell of the Japanese using the premises to torture and later execute prisoners. Rumors of ghosts and spirits After the rediscovery of Kellie’s Castle, spooky tales with hints of the supernatural emerged. A couple who visited to photograph nocturnal animals reported seeing ghostly figures in the window. Others say William’s spirit restlessly roams the second–floor corridor. Look carefully in his daughter’s room, and her spirit in a white blouse with curly hair might appear. Or just stand still in a quiet room and get the sense of uneasiness. But, William died in Lisbon and was buried in a British cemetery. His wife and children, who probably remember little of the mansion anyway, never returned.
The haunted Scottish mansion Several Tamil workers died of Spanish flu while building Kellie’s Castle. And we don’t know for sure if and how many the Japanese brutally murdered, whose spirits might be lingering inside the spooky rooms. Is this just gossip and hype to drive tourism or is there something else going on at Kellie’s Castle? Nobody knows for sure.
Opening Hours and Admission
Kellie's castle is open daily from 9 am to 6 pm.
Admission Charges:
Foreigners RM 10 adults and RM 9 for kids.
Malaysians RM 5 adults and RM3 for children.
We have visited many places in Ipoh. I will share about other locations in my next post. Stay Tuned!
We return to Kuala Lumpur at the midnight.
Photo Album: https://photos.app.goo.gl/5YeZztAt75qG6Vn49
