Hello everyone 👧.
Kellie's Castle is located at Perak in the Batu Gajah district. The castle was named after William Kellie-Smith, a Scottish civil engineer and also a businessman. The castle was built for William Kellie-Smith's loving wife. The construction of the castle was delayed as a result of the Spanish flu that struck the Tamil workers. Then, the construction was totally halted after William Kellie-Smith died from pneumonia during his trip at Portugal in the year of 1926. Following this unfortunate event, William Kellie-Smith's wife returned to Scotland with her children, and the incomplete castle was sold to a British Company.
Kellie's Castle had been neglected for more than 80 years with vandalism until the year of 2000, Malaysia's government decided to refurbishing this castle as potential tourism venue. Approximately one year after the year 2012 (or I'm not sure which year) Kellie's Castle opened as a tourist attraction for locals and foreigners.
Kellie Castle is open for visitors from 9.30am to 5.30pm. We arrived at this tourist attraction around 4.30pm after our visit at Concubine Lane at Ipoh, Perak. For 4 adults, consisted my family and I, the ticket is RM5.00 (USD 1.1) for each person. For foreigners, the price of the ticket is twice as high as the local price.
It was a great day to visit this castle without rain. The only con was that there were too many visitors during our tour inside the castle. This is due to the day we visited this castle was during the holiday season, when many local tourists were going out for travel domestically.
By referring to the picture below with the 2 buildings, the right taller building is the incomplete castle. On the other hand, the left building is Kellie's first mansion before the castle was built.
Basement & Ground Floor of Kellie's Castle
We first stopped by to visit Kellie's Castle, the red brick-stone building on the right side. After reading the informative board about Kellie's Castle's history, we took the stairs to the basement to look at wine cellar room and underground tunnel.
Castle's layout and informative of Kellie's Castle history
Going down to the basement
Wine cellar
There is a secret path leading to the underground tunnel, but it has been sealed off so visitors cannot enter. According to my findings in many articles in Google search of the mystery of Kellie's Castle, three secret tunnels were discovered (one was connected to a Hindu temple) and it is believed there are more that were undiscovered.
After seeing the wine cellar and sealed underground tunnels, we returned to the ground floor.
Lobby entrance
The living room with furnitures was not open to the public. We only viewed the living room through the steel gate that attaches to the wall.
Living room
It's been rumored that some of the tourists who visited Kellie's Castle sighted ghosts walking in this corridor. It is possible that the spirit of William Kellie-Smith or the Tamil worker who died during the construction of castle or Spanish Flu event.
Ghost sighted corridor
Dining room
One of the room in ground floor. Maybe a kitchen
First Floor of Kellie's Castle
Stairway to first floor
Most of the rooms on the first floor are bedrooms with bathroom included and without furniture inside. All looks the same except for the master bedroom, which has a closet, and William Kellie-Smith's children's (Helen and Anthony) rooms that has a secret passageway connected to their bathroom.
First floor's corridor
Bedroom entrance
Bedroom (forgotten whose room)
Closet in master bedroom
Anthony's bedroom
Anthony's bathroom
The secret passageway to Helen's bathroom
Maybe inside Helen's bedroom
Second Floor of Kellie's Castle
We then walked to the second floor and walked straight into the guest room. The guest room might be used for meetings or hanging out as there is no bathroom inside.
The lift shaft or elevator was just beside the staircase before entering the guest room.
Guest room
Lift shalf
From the other side of the door on the second floor, we were directed to an empty platform or balcony to view the outside. This empty platform is said to be for an indoor tennis court.
Balcony to view outdoor
The view from the balcony to the third floor and the highest floor
When walking around this second floor area, we need to be extra careful. This is because there are certain areas that are without borders or people can easily fall down from the second floor. From our view as shown in the picture below, that is the main entrance where we just entered Kellie's Castle. However, in the past, this entrance was the back of the estate.
The main entrance but not in the past
Resting hut
Dangerous walkway
The staircase to the third floor was only one way or only one person was able to walk on. My family and I decided to skip visiting the third floor and the highest floor. This is because we don't feel like to wait for people to let us using the narrow staircase with many people to go up or down.
I'm guessing the third floor room serves as a guest room. As for the higher floor with empty platform, it is a gathering spot for events such as parties.
Kellie's House
The ruined yellow stone-brick mansion was Kellie's House, where Kellie's family stayed before the construction of Kellie's Castle.
Pathway from incomplete Kellie's Castle to Kellie's House
The ruined Kellie's House
Study room
Kitchen and ruined unique duck egg cement stairway to first floor
Kellie's House was damaged especially the upper floor during World War II. The top or first floor was inaccessible and we were only able to see the remaining wall architecture above us from ground floor.
Not sure these room for what purposes but we look above as per the informative board
Informative board that mentioned us to look up
Dining hall
We rested in the hut that was vacant just in front of us. There was no detail mentioned that when this rest hut was built.
Resting hunt
Resting hunt's ceiling
There was more to see at the back or front yard entrance of Kellie's House. As my other family and I were tired, only my Sister looked further into that area. There was nothing special about that area, according to my Sister. In addition, the once front entrance route of Kellie's House has turned into a jungle without any pathway.
Further exploration from my Sister
The picture taken by my Sister from the once a front yard entrance of Kellie's House
Exits and Other Facilities
Before leaving Kellie's Castle, we went to the facilities center, which offered photo booth services, human sketches, toilets, a mini mart, and cafeteria. In order to create a memorable keepsake for our family, we had a green screen photo booth session and the resulting photos show us with Kellie's Castle as background.
Photo booth services
Human sketches
It took us 45 minutes to 1 hour to explore this incomplete castle. It's kind of fun to learn about the story of this historical building even though not much entertainment is provided like in a shopping mall.
That's all. Thanks for reading my post 🤗.
I took all the pictures except for the front yard entrance, which my Sister took. As in my post above, the historical information is derived from reading articles on these websites stated below as well as from an informative board that I viewed on site during my tour in Kellie's Castle.
1) Kellie's Castle
2) The Puzzling Tale of Kellie’s Castle
3) Kellie’s Castle: the story behind its history and hauntings
4) Kellie's Castle Batu Gajah
5) Other minor articles in Google Search