Dalquharran New Castle

The derelict mass of Dalquharran New Castle is an abandoned 18th century mansion house built to a design by Robert Adam for the Kennedy family, who occupied the nearby Dalquharran Old Castle. The mansion can be reached and viewed from public footpaths, but is fenced off for safety reasons.

The Dalquharran estate changed hands between branches of the Kennedy family in the 18th century, and perhaps the new owners felt that the old castle was unsuitable for their social pretensions. This ambition was perhaps encouraged by Adam, whose niece Jean had married Thomas Adam, and designed the house for them. This was built c1790, and the house was subsequently extended about 100 years later. Just before the Second World War the house was sold, and served as a youth hostel, school for the deaf during the war itself. It was briefly occupied again after the war, when the school moved back to Glasgow, but was deroofed in the 1960s to avoid the tax burden as it was too expensive to maintain. Plans have been submitted and approved to restore the building and bring it back into use, but none of these have come to fruition to date.

HES Canmore database entry