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Who said castles need to be somber coloured stone buildings with grey and brown exterior? Ask the Earl of Glasgow, who had his transformed into the brightest in all of Scotland.

The Kelburn Castle, near Fairlie, 35 miles west of Glasgow, has been the family home of the Boyles since its construction in the 13th century, making the castle the oldest in Scotland to have been continuously inhabited by the same family.

In 1703, the Parliament of Scotland created the title of ‘Earl of Glasgow’ for the then owner David Boyle, who was one of the commissioners who negotiated the Treaty of Union uniting England and Scotland into Great Britain. Since then, the Kelburn Castle has been the home of a long line of Earls the family has produced.

In 2007, the 10th and current Earl of Glasgow, Patrick Robin Archibald Boyle, was told that he needed to remove a cement render, that had been added to the building in the 1950s, to avoid further damage to the stonework. At the suggestion of his children, Boyle, agreed to have the cement painted before it was removed. So, he invited a group of four Brazilian street artists to adorn the castle’s turret and walls with their unique style of graffiti art.

The work of the Brazilian artists received huge media attention, drawing many tourists from around the world. Historic Scotland, the government agency responsible for preserving the country's historic monuments, had agreed to the project on the understanding that the graffiti was temporary.

The artwork was meant to be removed after three years, but seeing the public response, the Earl appealed to Historic Scotland to make the artwork permanent.

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