The Monkey House

When I posted the pics of Culzean last week, I forgot to add pictures of the Monkey House! Yep that's right, the Kennedys had a Monkey House in the form of a pagoda built in 1814 to house their collection of exotic birds and animals. I feel sure Sir Edward would approve! I wonder if they had tigers, baboons and oriental quadrupeds?!




The information board by the Pagoda reads as follows

The Pagoda was completed in 1814 and was designed to house exotic birds and animals. From the upper floor the Kennedy family enjoyed captured views of the Castle, Hogston and Morriston Mounts and Goatfell on Arran. Surviving pagodas are rare, making this one of the few in Britain and unique in Scotland. The original architect is unknown. The building was reconstructed in 1997 in the spirit of its contemporaries and the main vista, from the Swan Pond, reestablished. The monkeys' tails in the balustrade and the monkey shaped weather vane are a subtle allusion to the fact that the Kennedy family at one time kept monkeys in the Pagoda, which local people called the "Monkey House."

There is no mention as to whether one of the monkeys was called Archie ;)