William Kellie Smith was from a village in
Scotland known as Kellas. In 1890, at the age of 20, he arrived in the then undeveloped
Malaya.
Here, he met an estate owner called Alma Baker, who had won concessions
from the state government to clear 360 hectares of forests in Perak.
With the substantial profits made from his business venture with Alma
Baker, Smith started planting
rubber trees and dabbled in the
tin mining industry. In time, he became the owner of Kinta Kellas Estate and the Kinta Kellas Tin Dredging Company.
Now with his fortune made, he returned home to marry his Scottish
sweetheart, Agnes, and brought her over to Malaysia in 1903. The
following year, the couple was blessed with a daughter whom they named
Helen. For many years after that, Agnes tried to conceive, but to no
avail. William Smith desperately wanted a son and heir to take over his
empire in the
Malay peninsula.
After many years, Agnes finally gave birth to a son, Anthony, in 1915.
The birth of his child was the start of even greater success for William
Smith. To celebrate Anthony's birth, William Smith decided to expand on
his mansion. Smith started planning for a huge castle which he planned
to call Kellas House, after his hometown in Scotland.
Construction difficulties and Smith's death
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 I
ended 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 Folly or Kellie's
Castle, was sold to a British company called Harrisons and Crosfield.
Kellie's Castle today
Descendants of the
Tamil
labourers brought over to Malaya to work on the mansion still live
nearby even now. Kellie's Castle is now a popular local tourist
attraction and was used as a setting in the 1999 film
Anna and the King.
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Dari
Kellie's Castle kami berkunjung pula ke Gua Tempurung .
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Kami hanya dibenarkan masuk selama tempoh 40 minit . Ini adalah pakej yang bayarannnya dewasa RM6.00 kanak-kanak bawah 12 tahun RM 2.00. Jumlah anak tangga 600 . Turun Naik tangga sejauh 1.5 km .
