Arnage Castle, Ellon

A Memory of Ellon.

Arnage Castle belonged to Donald Charles Stewart from the early 1930s until it went out of the Stewart family at the end of the 1980s. D C Stewart as he was known was the largest privately owned housebuilder in the north east of Scotland.  One of six brothers, all but one were involved in the building firm. Arnage played host to stars of film and theatre from around the world.  A Jay Gatsby of his day, D C Stewart was a philanthropist and a colourful character, known for his lavish parties, his love of cars, antiques.  The marble fireplace in main lounge bears his initials DCS carved into the stone.  A story which has come down through the generations is that as a young boy Donald loved to climb over the wall of the orchard and pick himself an apple from a tree.  One day however the owner happened to catch the young boy who, as he was being led out of the orchard, retorted 'I'm going to own this place one day'. Drive and ambition did indeed allow Donald to buy Arnage.
There he lived with his family and staff, who had uniforms for morning, afternoon and evening, complete with a chauffeur for his Rolls Royce, who was called Mackenzie.  Donald died in 1976 at age of 63 years but his legacy goes on through his family.