My Castle-stay

I LOVE CASTLE~!

There are castle and castles AND castlesssssssss everywhere in the UK and Europe. They used to be just-a-tourist-attractions to me, so as the various churces and cathedrals, i would always go for the sake of go and take pictures for the sake of telling the world - "yes i have been there".

But not this time, after i have got the chance to actually sleep in the castle and understand the whole castle in detail. I am really amazed that the castle still lives and everything in it is still standing in its ordinary place just as how it was originally built, even after a century, and even after the owner after owner rotted in the ground. This is what u can say--eternity.

Carbisdale Castle, was built between 1905 and 1917 for the Duchess of Sutherland-Mary Caroline Mitchell. It is located on a hill above the Kyle of Sutherland in the region of Sutherland in the Highlands. She was not well liked in the Sutherland family. When the Duke died in 1892 his will, well in favour of the Duchess, was contested by his son and heir as it was always the son of the duke that inherit the duke's property. In a court process that followed, the Duchess was found guilty of destroying documents and was imprisoned for six weeks in London.

Eventually, the Sutherland family came to an agreement giving the Duchess Blair a substantial financial settlement. Furthermore, the family agreed to build a castle for her.

She was obviously not fond of the ruined plan and so, the castle was built as expensive to her maximum for that era. The Duchess employed a firm of Ayrshire builders (the southest part of Scotland, in purpose). It was also cleverly located on a hillside and visible to a large part of Sutherland, especially the main road and rail line which the Sutherland people would have to use to travel south (purposely so as she will never be forgotten).

However, she couldnt live long to stay in her castle.

Colonel Theodore Salvesen, a wealthy Scottish businessman of Norwegian extraction, bought the castle in 1933. He provided the castle as a safe refuge for King Haakon VII of Norway and Crown Prince Olav. During that time the castle was also used to hold important meetings.
King Haakon VII made an agreement at the Carbisdale Conference on June 22, 1941, that the Russian forces, should they enter Norwegian territory, would not stay there after the war.

After the Colonel died his son, Captain Harold Salvesen, inherited the castle and gave its contents and estate to the Scottish Youth Hostels Association. Carbisdale Castle Youth Hostel opened to members on June 2, 1945 and is still serving this purpose.

The castle is said to have several ghosts. It has been investigated by paranormal experts with varying results. The appearances include a lady in white, fallen soldiers of the Battle of Carbisdale and the sounds of a piper. I did walk around the castle alone at night. And it indeed was eeeeeeeerieeeeeee.

The portrait of the late duchess- Mary Caroline Mitchell.

Eclipse!!
Nice pieces of arts in the castle dating back to the year 1680.. I only tOOk the the angels' pic since i only kno to appreciate them.
There were italian marbles statues dating back to around 1857 all around in the castle as well.
Our dining room. The first ever ceiling with electric light bulbs in the whole Britain.
The Library..with huge collection of books around the world.
The big gathering of Strathclyde Univ International students. Abt150 of us in total. Imagine it was built for only one lady but spaceful enough to accomodate such a huge amount of ppl. According to the joyful Jim, our univ's international student officer who brought us there, said that castles were built as big as possible to accomodate the guestsssss for all the big functions and partys which was held in the castle, secondary to the fame.

The status made the castle extra eerie when u walk around them at the silent night.

We had so much fun in the night where we had the session called 'music from all around the world". Students from each countries stood to the front to sing their own country song. We the group of Malaysian students dikirbarat-ed "Rasa Sayang and Lenggang-lenggang kangkung". I was the only Malaysian who still remember the lyrics and how to dikir. Excuse the city folks.My all time favorite-Scottish Dance. Also known as Ceileidth. It is more like a social dance with easy steps and stress more on interations between the ppl in the whole dance floor

Our morning forest walk near the castle I met my oge-kampong in the forest of north scotland!! Azman from Tumpat!! You yuan-nyaaa. He was walking behind us when we mentioned "rabun ayam" in the middle of our mandarind conversation and he was like "hey, where r u ppl from? Malaysia?"
We were among the ones left behind and which took the wrong path. We actually came to the muddy path and reach this beautiful cul-de-sac which made the wrong turning and muddy shoes all ever so worth while. We managed to U-turn back to the castle in the end.
Sheep farm nearby the castle.
Cute kan this little round thingy? my old time favorite. heheSee how beautiful Highlands is. Ah Ming, Ah Liet and Ade!! U gals MUST come!! So as Miss Moopig! how can i forget u kan? =)
We visited the Dunrobin Castle, home of the duke of Sutherland family. But the fame decades ago has now became the roting isolated place. What a pity.