Craigellachie [1878-????]

Submitted by annelisec on Sat, 09/18/2010 - 19:58
Current condition
Demolished / No longer exists
Date completed

I've just put the first date Swire/TaiKoo started renting the house.

Mr. & Mrs. Edwin Mackintosh (Swire / Tai Koo taipan from 1879) were living there in the 1880s.

They then moved up to "Tai Koo" on the Peak when it was finished in 1889.

http://www.swire.com/eng/news/swire_news/vol34_2.pdf

Later place(s) at this location

Photos that show this Place

Comments

My understanding about Claymore House (also known as Clanmore) is that is was located in Pokfulam (located on the present day grounds of Chi Fu Fa Yen Housing Estate and the name Claymore Avenue remains) and was used as Butterfield & Swire's first Hong Kong Taipan's residence (Edwin Mackintosh - Hong Kong Manager in 1879,  and later that year he became partner in the firm Butterfield & Swire)  in the 1880s.  In June 1885 Swire sold the house to the Nazareth community of Jusuit priests, and the Swie's constructed a Taipan house on the Peak in 1889.  The villagers of Pokfulam called the house "Taikoolao" after the Chinese words "Tai Koo" the name that Swire atopted  for their Hong Kong sugar refining company.  Evidently Claymore had issues as a site known for the strange "Hong Kong fever", and after the purchase of the house several Jusuit priests became ill while living in Claymore, and eventually the Nazareth community moved to Richmond Terrace in Kennedy Town in April 1891 to escape the Hong Kong fevor of Claymore.  Eventually Claymore was sold to the Dairy Farm Company  and was demolished.  I am trying to accss a photo of this house - will try to post shortly.

Sources:

Le Pichon, Alain.  Bethanie & Nazareh- French Secrets from a British Colony.  Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2006.

"From the Archives: Bethanie, Nazareth and Claymore," Swire News (Summer 2007): 14-15.

Adjoining  Greenmount, was at one time the residence of the late Mr. Edwin Mackintosh the B. and S taipan, who rode in an open Victoria and pair right up to the fine drive to the house. Subsequently this lot became the property of the Rhenish Mission. It has been demolished and a block of European flats are in course of erection on the site. (c1933)

 
Source: Old Hong Kong by Colonial Vol 1