Torosay Castle is located near Craignure and
Duart Castle on the
Isle of Mull.
The castle and gardens closed to the public in 2010 and were sold to a private buyer in 2012.
The information below relates to a time when the castle was still open to the public.
Sitting in 12 acres of ornamental gardens, Torosay Castle is a Victorian
mansion built in 1858 by the Scottish architect David Bryce.
The main rooms open to the public contain cabinets of various mementos and china
acquired over the years, including pictures of Winston Churchill who was a
frequent visitor in his younger days.
The late head of the family, David Guthrie James, had a very adventurous life.
After sailing around the world in 1937, he joined the RNVR when war broke out. Captured from his motor gunboat in 1943, he made 2 attempts to escape from his German POW camp and successfully made it to Sweden on the second attempt, bringing back vital intelligence based on what he had seen. He spent time in the Antarctic before the War ended and later became a polar advisor for the 1948 film 'Scott of the Antarctic' with John Mills.
He served as an MP in two constituencies between 1959 and 1979.
When the castle was open to the public as the Guthrie James family home, one room housed a huge table covered with scrapbooks containing newspaper clippings cataloguing decades of local events.
The grounds include a series of magnificent Italian statues, sculpted fountains,
water garden, Japanese garden, rockery, stone lions, a domed folly and elaborate
square towers on the edge of the terrace.
