A fascinating glimpse into the privileged life led by a wealthy shipping family in their Angus castle has been revealed as the end of an era draws to a close.
For over 100 years Kinpurnie Castle near Newtyle was owned by the Cayzers, whose massive fortune was founded by Sir Charles William Cayzer, a Victorian schoolmaster’s son who went to sea as a teenager and later founded a shipping company.
With the death of his great-grandson, Sir James Cayzer, the estate and castle was put on the market by his heirs and the castle’s contents are now being auctioned in Perth to allow the new owners to move in.
Despite his multi-millionaire status, collection of Rolls Royces, and friends including the Queen Mother, the bachelor Sir James was said to have lived a surprisingly simple life at Kinpurnie but this family had managed to acquire a great many things over the past century.
Auctioneer Nick Burns and his team from Lindsay Burns and Company removed seven furniture lorry loads from the castle which are now being sold over two sales.
Mr Burns has considerable experience of clearing castles and country house estates including Drumfork, Bridge of Cally, and Kinmonth, Bridge of Earn, and Kinpurnie was another time capsule of a bygone era.
“The castle is arts and crafts period in the Scottish baronial taste with all the features you would expect turrets, towers, grand views and set in mature grounds,” said Mr Burns.
His team packed the lorries with everything from old butler’s trays “still covered in dust and harking back to the days of service” to vintage luggage, croquet sets, children’s toys, picnic baskets, stag’s heads, silver, furniture and paintings.
“You can tell a lot of the items have been there for the best part of the last century,” said Mr Burns.
He said that once he got behind the formal rooms into the corridors, servants wing and attics many “hidden gems” came to light.
“It was very evocative, light was streaming through the coloured glass panels striking the dust created by the removal and it was thought provoking to think of the same scene 100 years ago when items were coming into the castle to make it a home,” said Mr Burns.
The first sale of general items is at the King Street auction house on Thursday October 15 with viewing the day before while antiques, fine art and specialist items from the castle will be auctioned on December 8 and 9.