Rosinish dug out references to a Robert Cowan living at somewhere mysteriously called Skibo Barracks near Dornoch, along with many other skilled workers born elsewhere in Scotland. I’ve got a theory for what was going on here.
Andrew Carnegie, the famous son of Dunfermline who made good in America sold his massive steelworks there in 1901 making him the richest man in the world. He had purchased the near derelict Skibo Castle in Sutherland and engaged Scottish architects Ross and Macbeth to transform the site into a huge baronial mansion, with all its outbuildings, with most of the work being carried out between 1899 and 1903. He spent astronomical sums of money ensuring all the work was carried out to the very highest standards on this huge structure including the most advanced plumbing that money could buy, much imported from America. There was also a glass roofed swimming pavilion with a full length Olympic sized indoor swimming pool with attached Turkish baths, all of the most luxurious standard. The first electric lift in the UK was installed by no less a person than Otis himself and the castle had its own power station. Such was the stir that this project created that even King Edward VII visited to see for himself and pick up ideas for Buckingham Palace.
Clearly large numbers of highly skilled workmen had to be sourced and few could be found locally so contracts would have been awarded to distant companies to provide a workforce to be housed on site. All of the plumbers were born in Ayrshire. Today we tend to think of the word Barracks being a military term but at that time the word was used widely to refer to high density accommodation, often for the very poorest levels of society. The term had certainly been used locally for accommodation for the poor provided by the Duke of Sutherland in Dornoch and Loth. Apart from the Skibo Barracks there were also barracks for workmen at nearby Overskibo.
Given the scale and complexity of the wider plumbing installation it seems likely that once the castle was up and running the original contractors had an ongoing maintenance arrangement of sorts and there may even have been a small permanent presence. Perhaps there were upgradings and additions from time to time.
Imber
