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Castles – Central Scotland, Fife & Clackmannan

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Castles – Central Scotland, Fife & Clackmannan Castles – Central Scotland, Fife & Clackmannan ‘Build Date’ refers to the oldest surviving significant elements; In column 1; FC ≡ Fife & Clackmannanshire Build Occupation FC Castle Location Configuration Current Remains Date Status 1 Aberdour NT 193 854 Enclosure + tower c1200 Part-occupied High ruins of tower, other buildings roofed 2 Aithernie NO 379 035 Fortified house c1600 Empty, 18th C A fragment of 1 corner 3 Alloa NS 889 925 Tower 1360s Occupied Entire, but modified inside and outside 4 Ardross NO 509 007 Tower + hall 14th C Empty, 17th C Low ruins of tower & hall block 5 Balfour NO 324 003 Tower Mid-16th C Empty, 20th C Scattered low ruins of mansion with tower 6 Balgonie NO 313 007 Tower + barmkin 1370s Occupied Re-roofed tower, ruined ranges 7 Ballinbreich NO 272 205 Tower + barmkin 14th C Empty, 18th C Ruins, visible only from a distance 8 Balwearie NT 252 904 Tower + barmkin 1464 Empty, 17th C High ruin of 1 wall of tower 9 Campbell NS 962 994 Tower + barmkin 15th C Empty, 17th C Re-roofed tower + other ruins NO 353 144 th th 10 Carslogie Tower 16 C Empty, 19 C Ruin of lower storeys 11 Clackmannan NS 905 920 Tower + barmkin c1360 Empty, c1800 Entire 12 Collairnie NO 307 170 Tower 16th C Empty, recent Wing of tower in disrepair 13 Corston NO 208 098 Tower Late-16th C Empty, 18th C? High ruin of single wall 14 Creich NO 329 212 Tower + barmkin 16th C Empty, 18th C High ruin 15 Cruivie NO 419 229 Tower c1500 Empty, 18th C? Ruin of lower storeys 16 Dairsie NO 414 160 Fortified house 16th C Occupied Rebuilt, rather than restored 17 Denmylne NO 249 175 Tower 15th C Empty, 18th C High ruin 18 Earlshall NO 465 211 Fortified House 16th/17th C Occupied Restored, 1890s 19 Falkland NO 254 075 Fortified house c1510 Occupied South range entire, ruined east range 20 Fernie NO 316 147 Tower 16th C Occupied Much altered and added to, now a hotel 21 Hallyards NT 212 914 Tower + barmkin 16th/17th C Empty, 18th C Fragments 22 Kellie NO 520 052 Tower c1360 Occupied Expanded, and then restored in the 19th C 23 Largo NO 418 034 Fortified house c1600 Empty, 1750 Single corner tower + length of wall 24 Lochore NT 175 959 Tower + barmkin c1300 Empty, 17th C Ruins of tower + barmkin wall 25 Lordscairnie NO 348 178 Tower + barmkin 15th C Empty, 17th C High ruin of tower 26 MacDuff NT 344 972 2 X courtyard c1300 Empty, 17th C High ruin of tower + walls 27 Menstrie NS 852 968 Fortified house c1560 Occupied Lightly restored & modified internally 28 Monimail NO 299 141 Tower 16th C Empty, 18th C Tower, surviving part of mansion 29 Mountquhannie NO 347 212 Tower Early-16th C Empty, 1830 High roofless ruin, later ancillary buildings 30 Newark (Fife) NO 518 012 Fortified house 15th C Empty, 19th C Ruins at cliff-edge 31 Pitcruvie NO 413 046 Tower Late-15th C Empty, 18th C High ruin 32 Pittarthie NO 522 091 Fortified house Late-16th C Empty, 19th C High roofless ruin 33 Pitteadie NT 257 891 Tower 15th C Empty, 19th C High ruin 34 Ravenscraig NT 291 925 Twin-towers 1460 Empty, 17th C High ruins 35 Rosyth NT 110 821 Tower + barmkin c1450 Empty, 18th C High ruins 36 Sauchie NS 896 957 Tower + barmkin 1430s Empty, 18th C Tower entire, but barmkin ruined 37 Scotstarvit NO 370 113 Tower c1500 Empty, 18th C Building, entire 38 Seafield NT 280 885 Tower + barmkin Early-16th C Empty, 18th C Incomplete shell, with traces of barmkin 39 St. Andrews NO 513 169 Enclosure Late-14th C Empty, 17th C Extensive low ruins 40 Struthers NO 377 097 Tower + barmkin? 14th C Empty, 19th C Scattered ruined fragments 41 Tulliallan Old NS 927 888 Fortified house c1300 Empty, 1660 High, roofless ruin, fragments of curtain wall 42 Wemyss NT 329 251 Tower + curtain 1421 Occupied Tower modified and amongst newer buildings 1 Notes; 1. A total of 42 castles have been identified in Central Scotland in the counties of Fife & Clackmannanshire. My selection philosophy has been to include the great majority of those I have already visited and such others as I think interesting, with the proviso that there will normally be coherent masonry; I have usually excluded those which have benefitted from a modern reconstruction which could be described as a rebuild. There are remains of many more castles in the counties concerned, which I do not consider, often because they are inaccessible or fragmentary. So, my gazetteer is best regarded as a sample, albeit quite a large one, and any tentative conclusions I draw need to be seen in that light. 2. To-date, I have visited 40 of the 42 castles on my list, and the following comments refer to them only 3. There are 30 tower houses, 17 of which show surviving evidence of a barmkin. There are no motte and bailey types on the list because none have surviving coherent masonry. There are 2 enclosure types, (to be clear, they were defended by the towers and walls round the enclosure, whether or not there was a keep, whereas the defences of a tower and barmkin were dominated by the former, and barmkins were far less elaborate (and less expensive). There are 10 fortified houses, which apart from moats where they were present, depended on precautionary measures such as eliminating exterior windows, and providing arrow-or gun-loops. 4. Few castles date from earlier than the 2nd half of the 14th century, because the Scottish government had a policy of demolishing them to deny them to English forces during the Wars of Independence. 5. Only 10 castles remain occupied, and 4 of them were empty for a period before refurbishment/rebuilding. Of those now empty, none was deserted before the 17th century, and 20 were deserted in 18th century or later. 2 FC1. Aberdour Castle is south of the A921 and the railway in the coastal village of that name, which is 11km south-west of Kirkcaldy. The barony of Aberdour was acquired in 1126, by Sir Alan de Mortimer; the family probably built the original hall house in c1200. A member of the Douglas clan acquired the property in 1342, and in 1386, it was combined with Dalkeith in a single barony. James, fourth Lord Dalkeith, was created Earl of Morton in 1458, prior to his marriage to Joanna, the daughter of King James I. In the following years, Aberdour Castle was remodelled in accordance with the new status of its owners, but they came close to losing it along with their other possessions during the reign of King James V. The 4th Earl rose to be Regent of Scotland from 1572 to 1578, and further improved the castle, but was executed in 1581, and the castle was given to the Earl of Lennox. However, the properties of the earldom were recovered in 1587, though the then-Earls losses during the Civil War forced him to sell Dalkeith Palace, making Aberdour Castle his main residence, and prompting further building there. Eventually, in 1725 the Earls moved to Aberdour House, vacating the castle, and though parts found other uses, decay set in, before it was handed over to the state in 1924. The schematic shows the main features of what became an enclosure castle; the ruined tower house has dimensions 16 X 11m, and its lower parts date to c1200. It can be seen in the photograph, viewed from the south-west. 3 FC2. Aithernie Castle is west of the B927, 6km north of Leven. Probably only a castle in name, the substantial house was built by an Edinburgh merchant, William Rigg in the late 16th or early 17th century. In c1670, it became the property of a family called Watson, but the second generation were so profligate that the family was ruined thereafter, and the house shared their fate in the century afterwards. However, its reduction to the single corner shown in the photograph, taken from some distance south, must have been due to intensive quarrying of its stone. Little seems to be known about the configuration of the house, and observation of the surviving ruin does not yield much additional information. 4 FC3. Alloa Tower is near the centre of the town of that name. The lower parts of the tower have been considerably modified but date from the 1360s when built by Sir David Erskine, then Chancellor of Scotland, while the upper parts were added in the 1490s. The Erskines, who received the Earldom of Mar in the 1560s, resided in the tower more or less continuously until recent times. Intermissions were caused by their falling out of favour with governments, most famously when John, 6th Earl of Mar, and 1st Jacobite Duke of Mar, a past Secretary of State for Scotland, was attainted in 1716 for his leadership role during the 1715 Rebellion, but the family recovered the property in 1739. The tower is now in the hands of the National Trust for Scotland. The 4-storey tower has dimensions 19.3 X 12.2m, with walls 3m thick, but the modern windows visible in the view of the front, from the south-east, are an indication that internally, little remains that is medieval. At the top of the building, there are bartizans on all 4 corners and also above the entrance in the south-east face. At one point, a wing was added but it has been removed, and there are no traces of any ancillary buildings which may or may not have stood at different times.
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