In 1875 James MacAlister Hall, a colourful and successful Far Eastern entrepreneur bought Killean. He began the restoration of the original Killean house almost immediately but during the last stages of its completion a fire broke out and destroyed the whole house with the exception of the billiard room wing and the impressive wood teak porch (right) built for him by well known Clyde shipbuilders
The surviving billiard room wing was to form the basis of what is now the Garden House