Menu

Pages

Tuesday, 17 March 2020

WHO OWNS AYRSHIRE'S STATELY HOMES? (3) CASSILLIS HOUSE


Ayrshire is graced by some beautiful manor houses and impressive stately homes, but more often than not few people actually know who owns them or lives there. To correct this "information blind spot," this series will endeavour to identify who the "Lords and Ladies of the Manor" are, and tell you a little bit about them.

Cassillis House has a long and varied history, with parts of the property going back to the 15th century or earlier. The 112-room house covers 15,682 square feet and has 13 bedrooms, a ballroom, a library, and a private cinema, and stands in 85 acres of grounds, overlooking the Doon River, about seven miles South of the town of Ayr. It is also a Category A listed building.

The house was the home of the Earls of Cassillis until the title passed in 1759 to Sir Thomas Kennedy of Culzean, and Culzean Castle became their family seat. Cassillis was then the home of the Marquess of Ailsa, except for a period in 1940s and 50s when the National Trust for Scotland were in charge.

On the 8th of June, 2009, it was purchased by Australian entrepreneur Kate Armstrong. 


Kate is the founder of price comparison site Confused.com, after she had sold her stake to Admiral for £21 million in 2004. Armstrong paid £3 million then embarked on a four-year restoration project, reportedly spending another £3.5 million. The project  to give the estate a facelift was was featured in 2013 on the BBC2 programme Restoration Home.


Armstrong appears to need the money back however. In 2014 she placed the castle on the market for £5 million, and then in 2016 slashed the price to £3.9 -- effectively a loss of £2.6 million on her investment.

It looks like Mrs. Armstrong may have inherited some of the bad luck of the Earls of Cassillis who lived here. 

David Kennedy, the 1st Earl of Cassillis, was killed at the Battle of Flodden in 1513, the second Earl was murdered during an unsuccessful attempt to rescue James V and the third Earl was poisoned in France when he travelled there for the wedding of Mary, Queen of Scots.

Monday, 16 March 2020

WHO OWNS AYRSHIRE'S STATELY HOMES? (2) SKELMORLIE CASTLE

A price of £2.5m was quoted when the property came on the market in 2007
Ayrshire is graced by some beautiful manor houses and impressive stately homes, but more often than not few people actually know who owns them or lives there. To correct this "information blind spot," this series will endeavour to identify who the "Lords and Ladies of the Manor" are, and tell you a little bit about them.

Second on our list is Skelmorlie Castle, set high above the shore of the Firth of Clyde between Skelmorlie and Largs. 

The Castle has a long and distinguished history, dating from 1502 and constantly added to and refurbished ever since. From 1852 to 1886 the tenant was John Graham of Glasgow, the famous Port wine merchant (W. & J. Graham & Co. of Oporto established 1820). He rebuilt the castle in 1856, restoring the old tower at his own expense, and adding the mansion house which joined two old buildings, with the permission of the owner the Earl of Eglinton.

In the mid-1920s, the 16th Earl of Eglington moved in for a time, but in 1956 it was leased to the Wilson family, and then sold to them in the mid-1970s. The Wilsons were the owners of the meat canning factory that once operated on the grounds of the abandoned and ruined Eglinton Castle.

In 2009 Skelmorlie Castle was sold to its present owner, who is perhaps one of the most interesting people to have owned it or lived there. 

Again, a little detective work was necessary to track him down, but the story is a fascinating one. The present owner is Dr. Cameron Marshall, a successful executive and businessman, who initially owned the castle with a homosexual Civil Partner, Graham Stephen Stock (born 1964). In 2015, Stock was tragically killed in a horse-riding accident on Halloween in 2015, as reported in an obituary notice:

STOCK Graham Graham Stock, M.A., of Skelmorlie Castle and Shrewsbury, as a result of a tragic horse riding accident at Kelburn Castle on Saturday, 31st October 2015, died at Inverclyde Royal Hospital on Wednesday, 4th November 2015, donating major body organs so that others might live. Beloved Civil Partner of Doctor Cameron Marshall, only son of Brian and Doris Stock, Shrewsbury. A Memorial Service of Thanksgiving for Graham’s life will be held at Skelmorlie Parish Church, Shore Road, Skelmorlie, on Saturday, 12th December at 11.30am, to which family, friends and well-wishers are warmly invited. Donations, if desired, for Greenock Foodbank.

As for Dr. Marshall, his name is well known in various academic and business circles. Here is photo of him that was taken in 2019:



He appears to have been born in 1958. A biog at Glasgow University paints quite a vivid picture:

Dr Cameron Marshall - General Council Business Committee

Elected Member University of Glasgow General Council

Cameron graduated B.Sc. with first class honours in Physiology in 1979, was an active member of the 
University Royal Naval Unit, and Chief Purser of PS Waverley during the summers of 1976 and 1977. With a focus on cellular electrophysiology, he obtained a Ph.D. from Brown University in the USA in 1984, continuing research and teaching at the MRC receptor mechanisms unit at UCL, in the areas of single ion-channel recording and receptor kinetics.

Forsaking academia in 1989, he studied business administration at INSEAD, Fontanebleau, with special interests in strategy and in organisational behaviour. Thereafter Cameron pursued a commercially-focussed international career in the research-based pharmaceutical industry. During a varied career, positions held included : Commercial Director for Lilly France in Paris; Executive VP Marketing for Lilly Europe in London and Indianapolis; Commercial Director for Glaxo Wellcome UK ; Managing Director of GlaxoSmithKline Poland in Warsaw, and latterly, Chairman and Chief Executive of GlaxoSmithKline Germany in Munich, from 2008 to 2013. Cameron returned to live on the Clyde coast in 2014 after 35 years outside Scotland. He speaks French fluently, German tolerably, and can read a speech in mostly comprehensible Polish. A Clyde Steamer enthusiast, he is a board member of the operating company of the paddle steamer Waverley. Cameron enjoys classical music, some opera, sailing on the Clyde, and has a growing interest in aesthetics.

However, there have been complaints from locals that he is not too welcoming of people walking through the extensive grounds that surround the castle, as this 2014 story from the Largs and Millport News highlights:

The public have been assured they are still welcome to walk in the grounds of Skelmorlie Castle.

The confirmation has come from North Ayrshire Council after a Skelmorlie woman who walks her dog in the area told the “News” she got the distinct impression the owners of the castle were trying to discourage walkers.

Anne Murdoch, 70, who has visited the grounds for 20 years, says a network of paths identified as being open to the public were now in a poor condition and some had become “muddy, overgrown and dangerous”.

She said: “I have stopped going up there now. Elderly ladies like me have difficulty walking up there and I have abandoned the idea. If I fell when I was on my own, there would be no one there to help me.” The “News” contacted one of the castle’s owners, Dr Cameron Marshall, to ask what the situation was but he refused to speak to us. Instead he referred us to North Ayrshire Council’s access officer.

We sincerely hope that the situation has improved since then for local walkers, and we may personally investigate at some date in the future.

Sunday, 15 March 2020

WHO OWNS AYRSHIRE'S STATELY HOMES? (1) MONTGREENAN HOUSE


Ayrshire is graced by some beautiful manor houses and impressive stately homes, but more often than not few people actually know who owns them or lives there. To correct this "information blind spot," this series will endeavour to identify who the "Lords and Ladies of the Manor" are, and tell you a little bit about them.

First on our list is Montgreenan House, set in fifty acres of gardens and parkland, near the hamlet of Benslie, not that far from Kilwinning and Irvine. 

The house is an elegant Georgian mansion built in 1817 by Sir Robert Glasgow with architectural features by Alexander 'Greek' Thompson. Until 1982, it was the home of the Viscounts Weir, minor nobility, after which it was sold to various owners, becoming a hotel at some point. In 2007 it changed hands for £1.3 million.

On 24th April, 2014, it was sold for £995,000 to a mystery owner who then made it into a private residence. 

The owner
Information on the identity of the new owner was hard to come by, but thanks to a recent newspaper item about planning permission, we can now confirm that the owner is Gerry Hilferty, the Managing Director of Brodie Engineering, a Kilmarnock-based rolling stock engineering business. That means they fix trains.

Hilferty's biog at the Brodie website states the following: 

Gerry is a Chartered Engineer and founded Brodie Engineering in 1996. He is a railway engineering career professional with extensive experience of rolling stock maintenance and repair and the design of specialist bespoke infrastructure maintenance vehicles and infrastructure handling equipment.

In addition to this, he clearly likes his privacy and cherishes his security, as the recent story about planning permission to install a two-metre high fence, CCTV and floodlights around his property. 

According to the Irvine Times:

Planning chiefs insisted all sections be positioned at least three metres away from footpaths or track and fencing shall not obstruct, block or divert walking routes and that the field of vision of the CCTV cameras will be limited to land inside the site only.

Prior to work starting a written statement and diagram detailing measures to protect trees, roots, habitats and permit the passage of wildlife, such as badgers, through or under the fence, shall be submitted to NAC.

They added: “Notwithstanding the legend on an approved drawing, no part of the fencing shall consist of railway weldmesh with concrete posts, nor shall Tornado R19/180/5 mesh be used with details of an alternative specification be submitted for approval of North Ayrshire Council as Planning Authority. "

AYRSHIRE'S TOP COP IS NOW A MAN OF MUSLIM BACKGROUND

Diverse!

The new head of police in Ayrshire has an interesting and unusual name. In fact, to be frank, it is a Muslim name, although it should be pointed out that his mother is Brazilian while only his father is Pakistani.

As reported by the Ardrossan and Saltcoats Herald:

Ayrshire has a new top cop after it was announced that Chief Superintendent Faroque Hussain would take over as Divisional Commander for the area.

He replaces Ch Supt Mark Hargreaves who was transferred to the Glasgow Division to head up policing of the United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP26) which will take place in the city in November.

Ch Supt Hussain said: “I am delighted and privileged to be appointed as the next Local Police Commander for Ayrshire. I am looking forward to continuing the excellent work and relationships built with local partners and communities across North, East and South Ayrshire by my predecessor Chief Superintendent Mark Hargreaves.”

Ch Supt Hussain has 20 years police experience and from 2016 to 2018 he served in the Ayrshire Division as a Superintendent...

He is currently a Strategic Firearms Commander, having previously been an Authorised Firearms Officer and a Tactical Firearms Commander.

While everybody is an individual and should be judged on his or her merits, there are several issues that Ayrshire People should be aware of.

Having police officers of a different ethnicity from the majority of the population can often have an alienating effect on those being policed. This has often been reported on in Black communities in the USA when they are policed by White officers.

Additionally having ethnic minorities in positions of great responsibility can lead to problems, because it may be considered "racist" to criticise them when they do something wrong. This was the same problem that led to Muslim grooming and rape gangs going unreported in the UK for so long because the authorities felt it might be seen as somehow "racist" to hold them accountable.

Also, even though ethnic minorities are more likely to be treated leniently because of fears of being seen as "racist," actually complaints of misconduct and corruption against Asian officers are ten times higher than against their white colleagues!!!

This fact emerged in 2006 when the Left-wing Guardian newspaper reported that a secret high-level Metropolitan police report concluded that Muslim officers are more likely to become corrupt than white officers because of their cultural and family backgrounds. 

The main conclusions of the study, commissioned by the Directorate of Professional Standards and written by an Asian detective chief inspector, stated: 

"Asian officers and in particular Pakistani Muslim officers are under greater pressure from the family, the extended family ... and their community against that of their white colleagues to engage in activity that might lead to misconduct or criminality."

It recommended that Asian officers needed special anti-corruption training and is now being considered by a working party of senior staff.

The report said that British Pakistanis live in a cash culture in which "assisting your extended family is considered a duty" and in an environment in which large amounts of money are loaned between relatives and friends.

Let us hope that Mr Hussain has had the full anti-corruption training and does a good job. We will follow his career with interest.

Hussain (right) wearing a Pakistani tribal costume, with his parents in 2011

Friday, 13 March 2020

AYR LASSIE KILLED IN IRAQ MISSILE STRIKE


The British victim of a missile strike on a US-British base in Iraq was apparently a young woman from Ayr. 

As reported by the Daily Mirror:

The 26-year-old female medic died along with two US soldiers when an Iranian-backed militia fired 30 Katyusha rockets at her base north of Baghdad.

She is the first British woman killed in Operation Shader, the UK mission to train Iraqi troops.

Colleagues of the unmarried combat medical technician from Ayr, Scotland, praised her dedication, describing her as larger than life.

Commanding officer Lt Col William Leek said: “She was hugely popular in the Scottish and North Irish Yeomanry and we are proud and humbled to have served with her.

“She was a larger-than-life soldier who was determined to deploy on operations, help others, develop herself and gain practical experience.”

L Cpl Gillon, who juggled military training with a civilian career as a self-employed sports physio, was among 400 troops taking part in Operation Shader.

Time to wonder again what the hell we are doing in Iraq, especially after ISIS has been defeated, and after the Iraqi Parliament voted in January for all foreign troops to leave the country. 

Really, why are we still sending our young men and women to their deaths? Is it to back-up the US petro-dollar? Is it a favour for Zionist donors in America who have paid billions to US politicians to keep US and Western forces in the Middle East?