We Often Like To Feature Street Art,

where an artist,

 or group of people have transformed the side or front of a building,

 normally some anonymous block of apartments,

 or utilitarian building,

so it was a surprise to see this Scottish castle made into street art and not just any old castle, the Kelburn Castle, 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, 

and the street art? this is the story, 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, Patrick 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, the agency allowed some leeway allowing the artwork to exist a few more years,

in 2011, the mural was named as one of the world's top 10 examples of street art by author and designer Tristan Manco - on a par with Banksy's work in Los Angeles and the Favela Morro Da Providencia in Rio de Janeiro, then in 2012 the agency made an inspection of the castle and discovered that the cement was severely damaging the original castle walls, and urged the Earl to remove the graffiti, the graffiti was supposed to go by summer 2015, but there are no more updates either from the media or from the castle owners, so if you want to see the mural a quick call to the castle (01475 568 685) might be in order to make sure it is still there!