This amazing leftover from colonial times is set by a small river about 30 KM South West of Ipoh. The castle referred to is in fact an old unfinished  mansion. It was to be one in the mould of great colonial houses, complete with Moorish-style windows & even a lift. A wealthy British Plantation Owner,  William Kellie Smith, who lived in a splendid mansion in this area in the early 19th century, commissioned the building of the "Castle", which was to be the home of his (as yet unborn) son. The house was never occupied, as he died before the castle could be completed.

 Kellie's Castle is located in Batu Gajah and was built by a Scottish planter, William Kellie Smith, who arrived in Malaya in 1890 and made his fortune in tin and rubber.

With cash in his pocket he returned home to marry his sweetheart Agnes and brought her over to Malaya in 1903. They had a daughter called Helen the following year.

William Smith really wanted an heir to take over his empire and Agnes finally gave birth to a son called Anthony in 1915. To celebrate the birth, Smith started planning for a huge castle which he wanted to call Kellas House, after his hometown in Scotland.

Several tragedies struck after the construction of the Kellas House and it was never completed. William Kellie Smith himself died of pneumonia during a short trip to Portugal in 1926. His wife decided to pack up and return home to Scotland and sold the estate and Kellie's Castle.

Despite more than eighty years of neglect the house was refurbished in 2000 and it is now a tourist attraction. It was even used as a setting in the 1999 film, 'Anna and the King'.

Our visit here was a brief one tacked at the end of our white water rafting tour on the Kampar River. We managed to gain a bit of time courtesy of a hasty exit from Tempurung Cave which was rapidly filling with water during our caving expedition.

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