Aberuchill Castle is located west of Comrie in Perthshire,

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a Anglo-Scottish border, border with England to the southeast ...

. 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 cont ...

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 Ben Lawers ( gd, Beinn Labhair) is the highest mountain in the Breadalbane region of the Scottish Highlands. It lies ...

. 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, 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 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, 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 Inde ...

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