Culzean Castle was constructed as an L-plan castle by order of the 10th Earl of Cassilis. He instructed the architect Robert Adam to rebuild a previous, but more basic, structure into a fine country house to be the seat of his earldom. The castle was built in stages between 1777 and 1792. It incorporates a large drum tower with a circular saloon inside, a grand oval staircase and a suite of well-appointed apartments. In 1945, the Kennedy family gave the castle and its grounds to the National Trust for Scotland. In doing so, they stipulated that the apartment at the top of the castle be given to General of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower in recognition of his role as Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe during the Second World War. The General first visited Culzean Castle in 1946 and stayed there four times, including once while President of the United States. The Ayrshire Yeomanry, a British Yeomanrycavalry regiment, was formed by The Earl of Cassillis at Culzean Castle in about 1794. On 24 June 1961, the regiment returned to the castle to be presented with its first guidon by General Sir Horatius Murray, KBE, CB, DSO. The castle re-opened in April 2011 after a refurbishment funded by a gift in the will of American millionaire William Lindsay to the National Trust for Scotland. Lindsay, who had never visited Scotland, requested that a significant portion of his $4 million go towards Culzean. Lindsay was reportedly interested in Eisenhower's holidays at the castle. Culzean Castle received 382,608 visitors in 2018.
Features
The armoury contains a propellor from a plane flown by Leefe Robinson when he shot down a German airship north of London in 1916. To the north of the castle is a bay containing the Gas House, which provided town gas for the castle up until 1940. This group of buildings consists of the gas manager's house, the Retort House and the remains of the gasometer. There are sea caves beneath the castle which are currently not open generally, but are open for tours throughout the summer. The castle grounds include a walled garden, which is built on the site of the home of a former slave owned by the Kennedy family, Scipio Kennedy.
Ghosts
The Castle is reputed to be home to at least seven ghosts, including a piper and a servant girl.
Film and television appearances
Culzean Castle is used as the castle of Lord Summerisle in the 1973 cult film The Wicker Man. The scenes here were filmed between October and November 1972. Culzean Castle featured in the PBS documentary series Castles of Scotland in 1997. The Most Haunted team led by Yvette Fielding, Karl Beattie and medium Derek Acorah explored Culzean Castle's paranormal stories and reported sightings of ghosts for an episode of the first series, broadcast on Living TV in 2002. The BBC TVCoast programme visited in series 2 episode 3 first shown in November 2009. The castle appeared on the programme The Little Couple from TLC, where the family visited the castle on the Series 9 pilot episode.
