Culzean Castle was constructed as an
L-plan castle by order of the
10th Earl of Cassillis. He instructed the architect
Robert Adam to rebuild a previous, but more basic, structure into a fine
country house to be the seat of his
earldom. The castle was built in stages between 1777 and 1792. It incorporates a large drum tower with a circular saloon inside (which overlooks the sea), a grand oval staircase and a suite of well-appointed apartments. The castle was the venue, on 14 November 1817, when the
1st Marquess of Ailsa's daughter,
Margaret Radclyffe Livingstone Eyre, married Thomas, Viscount Kynnaird. Margaret would become a noted philanthropist. In 1945, the Kennedy family gave the castle and its grounds to the National Trust for Scotland (thus avoiding
inheritance tax). In doing so, they stipulated that the apartment at the top of the castle be given to
General of the Army Dwight D. Eisenhower in recognition of his role as Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces in Europe during the Second World War. The General first visited Culzean Castle in 1946 and stayed there four times, including once while President of the United States. The
Ayrshire (Earl of Carrick's Own) Yeomanry, a British
Yeomanry cavalry regiment, was formed by the
Earl of Cassillis at Culzean Castle in about 1794. On 24 June 1961, the regiment returned to the castle to be presented with its first
guidon by
General Sir Horatius Murray,
KBE,
CB,
DSO. The castle re-opened in April 2011 after a refurbishment funded by a gift in the will of American millionaire William Lindsay to the
National Trust for Scotland. Lindsay, who had never visited Scotland, requested that a significant portion of his $4 million go towards Culzean. Lindsay was reportedly interested in Eisenhower's holidays at the castle. Culzean Castle received 334,000 visitors in 2025. == Features ==