Aberuchill Castle is located west of

Comrie Comrie may refer to: Places *Comrie (crater), a lunar crater *Comrie, Fife, a village in Fife, Scotland *Comrie, Perth and Kinross, a village and parish in Strathearn, Scotland People with the surname *Aaron Comrie (born 1997), Scottish footballer ...

Perthshire Perthshire (locally: ; gd, Siorrachd Pheairt), officially the County of Perth, is a historic county and registration county in central Scotland. Geographically it extends from Strathmore in the east, to the Pass of Drumochter in the north, ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

. It comprises an early 17th-century

tower house A tower house is a particular type of stone structure, built for defensive purposes as well as habitation. Tower houses began to appear in the Middle Ages, especially in mountainous or limited access areas, in order to command and defend strateg ...

, which was extended and remodelled in the 19th century. The house, excluding the later west wing, is protected as a category A

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern Irel ...

, while the grounds are included in the

Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland The ''Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland'' is a listing of gardens and designed landscapes of national artistic and/or historical significance, in Scotland. The Inventory was originally compiled in 1987, although it is a conti ...

History

In 1596 the lands of Aberuchill were granted to the Campbell family of

Lawers Lawers is a village situated in rural Perthshire, Scotland. It lies on the banks of Loch Tay and at the foot of Ben Lawers. It was once part of a vibrant farming industry in the area. The Lady of Lawers The Lady of Lawers was possibly a S ...

. The earliest part of the tower house is dated 1602. In 1642 Aberuchill was acquired by Sir James Drummond, and was retained by his descendants until 1858. The gothic east wing was added to the tower house by the Drummonds, and the interiors remodelled, in the early 19th century. The house was purchased by Sir David Dundas of Dunira in 1858, who sold it on to English cotton merchant George Dewhurst of

Lymm Lymm is a village and civil parish in the Borough of Warrington, Cheshire, England, which incorporates the hamlets of Booths Hill, Broomedge, Church Green, Deansgreen, Heatley, Heatley Heath, Little Heatley, Oughtrington, Reddish, Rushgreen and ...

Cheshire Cheshire ( ) is a ceremonial and historic county in North West England, bordered by Wales to the west, Merseyside and Greater Manchester to the north, Derbyshire to the east, and Staffordshire and Shropshire to the south. Cheshire's county t ...

, in 1864. Between 1869 and 1874 the west wing and further additions were made, possibly to the designs of

David Bryce David Bryce FRSE FRIBA RSA (3 April 1803 – 7 May 1876) was a Scottish architect. Life Bryce was born at 5 South College Street in Edinburgh, the son of David Bryce (1763–1816) a grocer with a successful side interest in buildi ...

. Aberuchill was 'burned down' in a suffragette attack on 4 February 1914, and the castle's servants were fortunate to escape. Aberuchill Castle was inherited by

William Mostyn-Owen William "Willy" Mostyn-Owen (10 May 1929 – 2 May 2011) was a British art historian. He worked for some years with the art expert Bernard Berenson, and was his bibliographer. He was connected with the auctioneers Christie's for 30 years. Early ...

on the death of his father in 1947, and he was living there in "23 rooms or so" of one wing with his wife, the Italian writer

Gaia Servadio Gaia Cecilia Metella Servadio (13 September 1938 – 20 August 2021) was an Italian writer. Early life and career Servadio was born in Padua, the daughter of industrial chemist Luxardo Servadio and wife Bianca Prinzi. Her father was Jewish and ...

, in 1968, but eventually sold it. The estate was sold by the Dewhursts in the 1980s, and remains in private ownership. In 2005 it was reported that Russian steel tycoon

Vladimir Lisin Vladimir Sergeyevich Lisin (born 7 May 1956) is a Russian billionaire businessman. He is the chairman and majority shareholder of Novolipetsk (NLMK), one of the four largest steel companies in Russia. According to ''Bloomberg Billionaires Index ...

had purchased the castle and its estate for £6.8 million.

References

{{Authority control Houses in Perth and Kinross Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes Category A listed buildings in Perth and Kinross Listed castles in Scotland Castles in Perth and Kinross