A Visit to Skibo Castle–Mr. Carnegie’s “Heaven on Earth”
Having slept in Mr. Carnegie’s bed at Skibo Castle, awakened to the morning music
of the castle piper, eaten at the Laird of Skibo’s breakfast table, perused the books
in his library, walked through his gardens, inspected his Victorian swimming pool
and beautiful golf course, and supped with friends in his grand dining room, your
editor hastens to file a report. As one of 37 Americans on a recent tour from
Pittsburgh to Carnegie’s Scotland to celebrate The Carnegie Centennial, I shared with
my companions a grand highlight of the trip: a day and night at Skibo Castle. Another
highlight of the trip, Dunfermline, Carnegie’s birthplace, will be discussed in the
future. Andrew Carnegie bought his Scottish estate in 1898 as a summer retreat
for himself, his wife Louise, and their infant daughter Margaret, and soon turned
it into a grand country house that allowed him to entertain scores of guests in an
informal style. Every spring he migrated there with the family for the summer, and
did not return to New York until the fall. He called it his “heaven on earth,”
and indeed it was, and still is, a kind of pastoral wonderland with a sunny climate
in the Scottish highlands, kept mild by the warming influence of the Gulf Stream and
the Firth of Dornoch where Carnegie sailed his yacht. An ancient place dating
to the tenth century, its placename can be traced to Old Norse “Schytherbolle”
and earlier Irish Celtic origins, meaning “land of peace” or “fairyland.”
What remained of the ancient castle at the site disappeared under the massive Victorian
manor house of semi-Gothic design constructed by owner Evan Sutherland-Walker in the
1870s. It was this house and estate that Carnegie bought when the estate fell upon
hard times, and upgraded dramatically by adding grand new wings and extensions. Perhaps
the happiest and most satisfying period of Carnegie’s life was spent at Skibo, and
after his death in 1919 his wife and daughter continued to enjoy it. After Louise
died in 1946, Margaret continued to use it into her own last years. Finally, after
heartfelt attempts to keep it associated with the United Kingdom Trust for educational
or charitable purposes, she sold it in 1981 to a developer who hoped to maintain its
identity as Andrew Carnegie’s house, and use it to boost the tourist trade in northern
Scotland. But the upkeep of the 19,000- acre estate proved a financial burden and
again it was sold, this time in 1990 to the Peter de Savary family. Entrepreneur
Peter de Savar quickly fell under Skibo’s old magic, just as Carnegie had nine decades
earlier, and bought it five days after seeing it. Living in it with his family, he
restored to it the charming details of the Edwardian country house, and went to great
lengths to buy back furnishings which had been sold off by the previous owner. Today
Skibo has the beauty and style of the gracious manor which once housed Carnegie’s
mixture of guests–people from many walks of life, old friends and acquaintances,
and the celebrated leaders of his time, such as Rudyard Kipling, Booker T. Washington,
Helen Keller, the Rockefellers, Lloyd George, and King Edward VII (who granted Carnegie
special permission to fly his double-sided flag–with the Union Jack on one side and
the Stars and Stripes on the other). Returned with the flag are other Carnegie traditions
such as the piper who leads guests into the formal dining room on Saturday evening.
Peter de Savary has reinvisioned Skibo Castle as the Carnegie Club–a unique
and private club which offers members complete refuge from the hectic world, where
they can stay in one of the 28 castle guest rooms or nine private lodges, use the
library and exquisite dining rooms, or roam some 7,500 acres pursuing their interests,
from hiking to fishing to boating to hunting to falconry to tennis to swimming–but
especially, if they are so inclined, to playing golf. Carnegie personally
attributed many health benefits to “Dr. Golf,” and created his own nine-hole
course on a beautiful peninsula at Skibo, thereby putting down his claim to an excellent
course in a country famous for great golf courses. The legendary Royal Dornoch course
is in the nearby town, and other courses are nearby. Dedicated golfers who want to
play in Scotland can now put the links of the Carnegie Club on their agenda. An expansion
of the nine-hole course to an 18- hole championship course has already been skillfully
accomplished, and another 18-hole parkland course with tree and water obstacles, is
planned for 1997. Will this all work? Will an exclusive club membership of
450 people, with perhaps a corporate membership program seeking “heaven on earth”
in Scotland for its members, make Skibo a unique resort, and be a tourist blessing
for Northern Scotland? The experiment began in the spring of 1995, and the early reactions
in magazines and newspapers have been favorable. A golfing magazine gave it its highest
praise, and a fashion magazine used it as a wonderful stage set. Great Britain’s Sunday
Express offered a competition with the prizes being 25 two- night stays at the club.
The reviewer in Conde Nast Traveler struggled to find any fault with an otherwise
perfect visit, and finally decided that the mirrors in Carnegie’s bathroom were too
low (Carnegie was only five-foot two), and the carefully restored Victorian plumbing
took extra effort to operate. The travellers on the tour from Pittsburgh received
special treatment– in addition to being steeped in the informal but finely detailed
attentions of an excellent club management staff. The group from Pittsburgh occupied
nearly the entire facility, and club manager Stephen Toon made special arrangements.
One was a ceremonial tree- planting near Carnegie’s garden–another Skibo tradition–where
President Ellsworth Brown helped plant a memorial to the first one hundred years of
the Carnegie Library and Institute in Pittsburgh. This also happened to be the very
day, 81 years earlier in 1914, that Andrew Carnegie had bid goodbye to his Skibo staff
for the last time, as he left for America and World War I prevented his return. Andrew
Carnegie’s great granddaughter Margaret Carnegie Miller Thompson, who lives nearby
and bears a striking resemblance to her famous ancestor, very graciously greeted the
Pittsburgh group at the ceremony, and wore the Carnegie tartan for the special occasion.
Angus McLaren, who served at Skibo under Andrew’s daughter Margaret and still oversees
the details of the guests’ comfort, shared his knowledge of daily life at Skibo. At
the formal dinner (the piper pipes in the traditional dish, the haggis) the Pittsburgh-Skibo
connections were full of associations for the Americans. A new connection
developed between The Carnegie Club and the Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh, which
had in its files a good copy of a 1911 article written by Carnegie on “Dr. Golf.”
The Carnegie Club will reprint this story from The Independent magazine in one of
its club newsletters–including rare photographs of Carnegie demonstrating how to
play the game. The photo essay in magazines was in its infancy when Carnegie posed
for these pictures. As luck would have it, my wife and I passed the night
in Mr. Carnegie’s own room, and the following morning, at 8:30 a.m., Isnapped a picture
from Mr. Carnegie’s balcony of the piper parading through the mist on his wake-up
call. This was the way to start the day at “heaven on earth.” –R.
Jay Gangewere Information about Carnegie Club membership can be obtained
by contacting The Carnegie Club, Skibo Castle, Dornoch, Sutherland, Scotland IV25
3RQ; telephone: 44-1862-894600
