An urgent appeal has been made to save one of the rarest and strangest of royal instruments.
Built for Queen Victoria – who died while it was under construction – a priceless machine designed to sound like a full orchestra is now being eaten away by woodworm in a Small Isles castle.
The state of the orchestrion – which cost the equivalent of £120,000 when it was bought a century ago – is so bad that it is no longer safe to play.
In addition to numerous organ pipes, the instrument has a bass and snare drum, triangle and cymbal, giving the impression of a full orchestra.
The orchestrion could not be delivered to the Royal Deeside retreat before Queen Victoria died in January 1901.
It was then erected in the manufacturer’s showroom in New Oxford Street, London, until it was purchased by industrialist Sir George Bullough and moved to his Kinloch Castle on the Isle of Rum in 1906.
Even then it had to be altered to fit under the castle stairs.
And there it has stayed and played for over 100 years only to now be silenced by woodworm.
An urgent appeal is being launched to raise around £60,000 for the restoration of the musical timepiece, which is essentially an organ driven by electric motor that plays perforated card rolls.
Made by the German firm of Imhof and Mukle, it is one of only three of its type ever built.
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“Visitors to Kinloch Castle are amazed at the wonderful orchestrion,” say Kinloch Castle Friends’ Association, which is launching the appeal.
“The Kinloch Castle instrument is one of the biggest ever made, and one of the few now left. It is in urgent need of restoration.
“The orchestrion is suffering from woodworm and the whole mechanism needs extensive repair. It is not in a playable condition at the moment. It is, however, repairable and the KCFA have asked Michael Macdonald, a Fellow of the Incorporated Society of Organ Builders and who has also done some previous work on it, to give a quotation for the full cost of the work needed.
Kinloch’s machine’s tunes include extracts from Puccini’s Madame Butterfly and Mendelssohn’s Wedding March.
The friends association are seeking to take over the castle from owners Scottish Natural Heritage. It is believed that Kinloch and its priceless art works costs the taxpayer about £100,000-a-year just to maintain. SNH says it has invested more than £1m in the castle over the past few years alone.
But KCFA say it can turn it into a money-making attraction and wedding venue.
