View source for Penkill Castle

{{Short description|Castle in South Ayrshire, Scotland}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=October 2019}}
[[File:The_well_at_Penkill_Castle_(geograph_5171246).jpg|thumb|Penkill Castle with the well in the foreground]]
'''Penkill Castle''' is a 16th-century castle with later additions. It is around {{convert|1/2|mi|m|abbr=off}} south of [[Old Dailly]], northeast of [[Girvan]] in south [[Ayrshire]], [[Scotland]].

==History==
The 16th-century tower was built by a branch of the Boyd family, relatives of the [[Earl of Kilmarnock|Earls of Kilmarnock]], and extended several times. The original 16th-century square three-storey tower was extended in the 17th century to create an L-shaped building. The castle later fell into decline, becoming near ruinous by the early 19th century. Starting in 1857, the site was drastically restored and a modern wing added on the east.<ref name=canmore>[http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/en/site/62621/details/penkill+castle/ Penkill Castle site record at CANMORE]. Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland</ref>

The castle owner has been known as the [[Laird]] of Penkill, starting in the 16th century with Adam Boyd, 1st Laird of Penkill. The lairds were all men until the 14th Laird, the artist [[Alice Boyd]], in the late 19th century. She is credited with extending the original castle grounds after she became laird.

The 16th Laird of Penkill, Evelyn May Courtney-Boyd, was also the last; she sold Penkill Castle in the 1980s. It was bought by an American lawyer, Elton Eckstrand, who further restored it.<ref name=boyd>Boyd, Richard G. [http://homepages.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~clanboyd/page6.htm "Penkill Castle"]. Clan Boyd International website.</ref> In 1992 Penkill was sold by Eckstrand to Scots-born Canadian businessman Don Brown, then subsequently in 1993 to the then [[HTV Wales]] chairman and TV producer and director Patrick Dromgoole, and thus remains in private hands.

Penkill Castle played a minor part in the history of the British [[Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood|Pre-Raphaelite]] movement. In the late 1850s, the Pre-Raphaelite artist [[William Bell Scott]] began a liaison with [[Alice Boyd]], whose brother was then the laird. Scott visited Penkill often and on one occasion painted a series of murals illustrating [[James I of Scotland|James I]]'s poem ''[[The Kingis Quair]]'' in the staircase. Scott died at Penkill on 22 November 1890.<ref>{{DNB Cite|wstitle=Scott, William Bell}}</ref> 
[[File:William_Bell_Scott,_Scottish_Artist.jpg|thumb|William Bell Scott by Arthur Hughes]]
The castle was frequented by other Pre-Raphaelite artists and writers, including  [[Christina Rossetti]], who wrote of it: "Even Naples in imagination cannot efface the quiet fertile comeliness of Penkill in reality."<ref>''Christina Rossetti: A Biographical and Critical Study'' (1898) by Mackenzie Bell, page 51</ref>

==Notes==
<references/>

== External links ==
*[http://canmore.rcahms.gov.uk/en/site/62621/details/penkill+castle/ Penkill Castle site record at CANMORE] at [[RCAHMS|Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS)]]
*{{Historic Environment Scotland|num=LB1148|desc=Penkill Castle|cat=A}}

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{{Carrick}}
{{Castles in South Ayrshire}}
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[[Category:Castles in South Ayrshire]]
[[Category:Category A listed buildings in South Ayrshire]]
[[Category:Listed castles in Scotland]]