If you haven’t heard, there’s a unique project happening right now, here in Scotland. It’s called The Graffiti Project and the idea is simple…

Take the vibrant and often transient art form of Brazilian graffiti out of its predominantly urban context and apply it to the ancient and permanent walls of an historic rural castle in Scotland.

Four of the worlds’ top graffiti artists have been commissioned to paint Kelburn Castle with vibrant colours.

The project involves the artists and organisers living together in the Castle for approximately one month. New ideas are being explored and shared, from both sides of the equator, resulting in a one-off, giant piece of collaborative art.

History of Kelburn Castle

Kelburn is thought to be the oldest castle in Scotland to have been continuously inhabited by the same family. Orginally the family name was de Boyville but this changed over the years to Boyle. The de Boyvilles from Caen in Normandy came over to Britain with William the Conqueror in 1066 and the present branch of the family settled in Kelburn in 1140.

Nobody knows for certain when a stone building was first constructed on the site, but the original Norman Keep, designed for defence rather than comfort, was probably built by 1200. The original Norman Keep is now enclosed within a grander castle, completed in 1581 by the then Laird, David Boyle, at a time when the family was emerging from relative obscurity and beginning to wield some influence within the local community.

The present tenth Earl of Glasgow and his wife, Isabel, started Kelburn Country Centre in 1977, opening most of Kelburn’s grounds and gardens to the public and introducing new attractions.

Here’s a short video, showing the first week of timelapse footage for the project: