Kellie's Castle ( sometimes also called Kellie's Folly ) is located near Batu Gajah, and is about 20 minutes drive from Ipoh, Perak, Malaysia.
The unfinished, ruined mansion, was built by a scottish planter named William Kellie Smith. According to differing accounts, it was either a gift for wife or a home for his son.
William Kellie Smith was from a village in Scotland known as Kellas. In 1890, at the age of 20, he arrived in the undeveloped Malaya. Here, he met an estate owner called Alma Baker, who had won concessions from state goverment to clear 360 hectares of forests in Perak. With the substantial profits made from his business venture with Alma Baker, Smith started palnting rubber trees and dabbled in the tin mining industry. In time, he become the owner of Kinta Kellas Estate and the Kinta Kellas Tin Dredging Company. Now with his fortuned home to marry his scottish swwetheart, Agnes, and brought her over to Malaysia in 1903. The following year, the couple was blessed with a daughter whom they named Hellen. For many years after that, Agnes tried to conceive but to no avail. William Smith desprately wanted a son for taking over his empire in the Malaysia Peninsula. After many years, Agnes finally gave birth to a son, Anthony, in 1915. The birth of his child was the start of expand on his mansion. Smith started planning for a huge castle which he planned to call Kellas House, after his hometown in Scotland.
As state earlier, Kellie wanted a son very badly. One of the Madras laborers told him that by praying to Amman ( a Hindu Goddess), whom they believe will grant their wish. So Smith prayed to her and Agnes conceived and delivered a baby boy. As token appreciation, Kellie built a Hindu Temple for the Goddess. As he was so fond of theGoddess that he wanted to have built a statue of him beside her. Therefore a statue of a white man can be seen on the roof of temple today, alongside statues of Hindu gods and goddess. It is believed that a tunnel was built for his family to visit the temple from the casle. Becouse of his fascination with the Hindu relegion and indian culture. Smith 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, to keep the Kelllas House authenically Indian. The mansion is accessible from the main road through a bridge running across a stream.
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 Iended in Europe, killing many of the workers in the Kellas Estate. Another seventy workers constructing Smith's dream castle also became victims of the flu. Smith, who had already spent a fortune on his house, lost a lot of money because of this.
In the end, Kellas House, later known as Kellie's Castle, Kellie's Folly or Kellie's Castle, was sold to a British company called Harrisons and Crosfield.
