Kelburn castle 'engulfed in flames'

Feb 17, 2009, 10:20 GMT

One of Britain's oldest castles was damaged last night (16.02.09) when fire tore through its north wing.

The Earl of Glasgow - whose family has lived in Kelburn Castle in Ayrshire, Scotland, for more than 700 years - was sleeping when his son discovered the smoke in a billiard room at 1.30am.

Viscount Kelburn, 30, rushed to rouse his 69-year-old father and the pair attempted to extinguish the blaze - thought to have been caused by an electrical fault - while they waited for firefighters to arrive.

The Earl said: "We had a naive idea of throwing buckets of water into the fire so we got the water from the kitchen and rushed up there. When we opened the door all you could see was smoke.

"It was suffocating. I covered my mouth but it was no use. It was clear it was a bad idea, there was no point throwing water into a roomful of smoke. We went outside and sat on the lawn and waited for the fire brigade.

"We could see smoke coming out of the roof, then that turned to flames. We were very nervous at that time, extremely concerned. The fire brigade had not arrived at that point and we did not know how bad it was."

Around 25 firemen attended the blaze which was finally put out at around 7.20am this morning (17.02.09).

The Earl said he was "relieved" that the blaze had been contained to one part of the castle and praised firemen's efforts to save a number of valuable family portraits.

Part of the roof will have to be replaced and a "very good" carpet will be removed.

Viscount Kelburn said: "The fire brigade were amazing. We are both alive and the house has not burned down. I think we are incredibly fortunate."