Also known as Kellie’s Folly, this mansion is one of those leftovers of British eccentricity you occasionally find scattered in some random corner of the old empire. The best-preserved rooms are the guest bedrooms, adorned with fine figurative plasterwork, and there are splendid views of the surrounding countryside from the roof terrace. Tales of secret passageways and ghosts have added to the air of mystery that surrounds this place.
Wealthy Scottish rubber-plantation owner and lover-of-all-things-India William Kellie Smith commissioned the building to be the home of his son. Not only bricks, but artisans and labourers were sourced from India to build what would have been, if finished, one of the most magnificent residences in Malaysia. Poor Smith died in 1926 and the house was abandoned; today, the remaining six-storey structure is a well-tended tourist site.
