Falkland Park

Re-connecting people with the hills

Historic Landscape Introduction

Just after 6am on a lovely sunny hunt but when he rode out past the morning on Tuesday 5 August 1600 stables and through the gate into the James VI went hunting fallow deer in park Ruthven followed him still hoping Falkland Park. He was seen, dressed for to persuade him to leave the hunt. hunting, leaving the palace and walking James rode through a meadow in the down through the remains of the old park and up on to a small hillock above castle to the stables across from the a small wood where he could watch the tennis court. There the duke of Lennox, hunt begin. The hounds were used to 12 or so courtiers and some Englishmen raise the buck from the coppice where were waiting for him. Just as James it had been sheltering overnight. As was about to mount his horse he was it broke cover the king and the other waylaid by Alexander Ruthven with a hunters joined in the chase. They tale that he had found a man burying pursued the deer for about three hours a pot of gold outside Perth. He wanted without stopping until finally it turned James to come at once to his brother’s at bay and was killed about 200 metres house in Perth to see it. James refused from the park gate. Instead of waiting to go as he was looking forward to the for the formal ceremony where the dogs

Falkland Palace with the area of the park beyond. were rewarded with some meat from of Falkland Park was to let the king or the kill James rode off with Alexander queen spend leisure time hunting with Ruthven to Perth. a few companions away from affairs of state. But what was this park? How old We know about this hunt because it was was it? What did it look like? How was it the forerunner to what became known run and how did the Stewart monarchs as the Gowrie Conspiracy in which like James VI and his mother Mary two of James’ opponents in religious Queen of Scots hunt there when they matters, Alexander Ruthven and his were in residence? brother the earl of Gowrie, were killed. The details of the conspiracy do not concern us here but what does matter is that Parliament questioned all the witnesses about the events of the day including the hunt and James himself wrote his own version of events. This evidence lets us see that the purpose The Origins of the Park

The origins of the park are rather vague. Before1100AD Falkland and the Lomond Hills were probably a royal hunting area but between 1160 and 1162 Malcolm IV, King of Scotland, granted the royal estate of Falkland to Duncan II, Earl of Fife. The earls of Fife probably set up this hunting area as a hunting forest in which they decided 1) who could hunt deer and boar. which they called the venison, and 2) who could cut wood and graze animals on the vegetation, called the vert.

A park-like enclosure on the mid-15th-century seal of Within this forest the earls of Fife in George Douglas, Earl of Angus. The pale is constructed the 13th century decided to create with wattle fencing with a curved opening like a pen or a park. This was revealed by the a trap. discovery of 13th-century pottery in the bank surrounding the park during an excavation in Cash Wood in 2016 led by Oliver O’Grady. It is not known which earl of Fife ordered the building Medieval Parks of the park but whoever it was probably

A park was:

1) an area of private land held by the lord and not rented out to anyone else. 2) enclosed by a wall or by a bank with a fence or hedge on top often with an internal ditch. The bank and fence were called the pale. A pale also meant one of the vertical planks on the picket-like fence. 3) intended mainly to keep animals, usually fallow deer, captive inside. 4) created either inside or outside a forest. realised, as others had done before him, that it was a lot easier to control the vert and venison in a small enclosed park Medieval Forests rather than in a large unenclosed forest.

In the 14th century the earls continued In the Middle Ages a forest¹ meant to manage the park and the forest and a hunting reserve, an area where sometime between 1340 and 1353 the holder controlled the vert and Duncan IV, Earl of Fife, appointed John venison. This enabled the lord, the del Grene, who was a cleric, as forester holder of these forest rights, to of Falkland and keeper of Cupar Castle. control wood-cutting, ploughing, Clerics or priests who could read and the growing of crops and grazing write made effective administrators. of cattle and sheep since all these They were often from noble families and activities could damage the habitat were well able to manage a lord’s castle of the deer. In practice he usually and hunting reserves. permitted these activities on the payment of a fine or a fee. There In 1425 James I forfeited the earls of fife were no such allowances when it and granted Falkland to Walter Stewart, came to hunting deer or boar in the Earl of Atholl, but in 1437 he too was forest. forfeited and James II finally took over the running of the park. There is no Forests were not recognisable reference to the forest after 1371 which features in the landscape. They tells us that the park gradually replaced were simply a set of rights or rules the forest as the best place to hunt in imposed over an area of land held the area. by its lord who could be a baron, king, bishop or abbot.

Reconstructed remains of the castle of the earls of Woods often survived better in Fife at Falkland. forests and so gradually by the 16th century in Scotland the word came to mean a wooded area as it does today. The old meaning, however, still survives on today’s maps in the names of various former Scottish deer forests, for example, the Forest of Atholl, the Forest of Alyth and Ettrick Forest.

¹‘Forest’ is used throughout this guide to mean a hunting reserve and ‘forest’ to mean a wooded area. The Royal Park

The excavation of 2016 showed that at times red deer and boar were also when the park was made the area was kept. There were also swans, geese and enclosed with an earthen bank with a herons as well as other wild fowl. Over fence on top and with a shallow internal the years the Stewart monarchs did ditch. The fence would be like a tall make additions and reductions to the picket fence, not necessarily solid, and size of the park which, as a result, varied the whole pale, as it was called, would from around 450ha (1200 acres) in the be about 2 ½ to 3 metres from the 15th century to 650ha (1600 acres) bottom of the ditch to the top of the during the 16th century and the size of fence, high enough to keep semi-tame the fallow deer herd probably varied deer inside. The game animals kept in from about 300 to 500 deer. the park were mainly fallow deer but

Falkland Park Place-Names

Place-names marked with a (G) are from Gaelic and were probably formed from the 10th to the 12th centuries and place-names marked with (Sc) are from Scots which is a form of Medieval English and were probably formed any time from the 12th century onwards. A name printed in italics no longer survives on today’s maps.

Alleris alders (Sc) Blaeshangie place of the narrow estate (G) Bowingtrie bending tree (Sc) Cash steep place or rising ground (G) Darnoe place of black thorns (G) Devillie place difficult to farm (G) Falkland hidden land, land of heavy rain (G) Inchallamone boggy low-lying land beside water (G) Kilgour church of the goat burn or the Gabor burn (G) Nochnary hillock of the shieling or cattle station (G) Redmyre red or reed moss (G) Map by James Gordon of Straloch in 1642 showing the park pale. The pale is shown to be made of individual planks or pales. © National Library of Scotland.

Parks were a visible sign of a lord’s power. People could see the park Linlithgow and Falkland palaces. pale and they could see that the lord Stirling, the oldest of the royal parks, controlled this area and all the activities was used for hunting deer, for grazing inside it. They could see that common cattle and for providing hay. At Doune folk and their activities were excluded. there was some hunting but when They could see the exclusive deer whose James VI enclosed the wood there meat they were not allowed to buy or with a large bank it was earmarked for sell, let alone eat. Not only that, the producing wood and timber. Holyrood park could be used both to enhance was mainly used for cattle and sheep the appearance and setting of the farming and Linlithgow mainly for castle and to provide pleasant views grazing horses and providing hay. from the castle of enclosed meadows Falkland was used to produce hay and coppices with fallow deer grazing and graze cattle but its main purpose contentedly around them. was as a hunting park for the Stewart monarchs. Parks could be put to a variety of uses. In the 16th century the Stewart monarchs held parks at Stirling and Doune castles and at Holyrood, Woods and Meadows

Falkland Park was not just an open area up and then moved on to other royal of grassland. It contained stands of oak parks and killed as required to supply called the Easter and Wester Woods the royal court. In 1460 Marjory Baty through which deer and horsemen (Beaton) who worked in the park had to could move. There were also alder see to the shoeing and blood-letting of and probably hazel woods which were the queen’s cattle. This sounds rather managed to produce rods and poles for puzzling but cattle did need to be shod wattle fences, logs for fuel and poles before making long journeys, a practice for implements or weapons. The small well known in the 18th century. As wood where James VI watched the hunt for the blood, to go by later practice, begin on that day in August 1600 was it was usually taken from the barren probably a coppice being managed to cattle in the summer, mixed with meal produce wood for fences or fuel. and boiled into an early form of black pudding. There were named meadows in the park. The Forester and Michael’s Despite the presence of these valuable meadows lay to the north and Falkland commodities in the park there was no and Captain’s meadows to the south. attempt to turn a profit by selling cattle, These meadows were harvested every hay or wood or by renting out grazing. year at the king’s expense to provide This park was not seen as a money- hay which was essential fodder not making exercise. It was all for royal use only for the king’s horses but also for and was an expensive luxury. the deer. The hay was stored in the hay yard which lay close to the king’s stables near the tennis court. The meadows Fallow deer in Charlecotte Park. would be enclosed temporarily in the spring and early summer to prevent the grass being eaten by the deer and cattle before harvesting.

It may seem odd that cattle were allowed to share the grazing with the deer but deer and cattle do in fact go well together since the cattle eat the longer grasses and leave the shorter grass for the deer. The king and queen held the main herds in the park but the forester also was allowed to graze a few cattle there. Records show that cattle were driven to the park to be fattened Managing Wood

In medieval Scotland wood was needed for everything from spoons to cathedral roofs. Trees could be left to grow into timber for large construction or if a regular crop was needed for fencing or fuel the trees were often coppiced (cutting the tree at ground level at regular intervals) or sometimes pollarded (cutting branches every so often at head height so that animals could not eat the young shoots).

Woodland was used for grazing whenever possible and so young growth had to be enclosed so that deer or other livestock could not eat it. In these coppices the stump of the tree from which the coppice shoots grew was called a stool.

After 6-8 years the coppices would be big enough to be opened up for grazing again. These temporary enclosures could be made by placing a wattle fence or piles of thorns and branches called dead hedges round the wood both of which could be removed when required.

Fallow deer in Charlecotte Park. 1km Part of Darnoe was 1 mile Palingback used for grazing does by James V from 1538-42

Forester Michael’s Raecruik River Eden Meadow Meadow Strathmiglo Wester Nochnary Cash Devillie Easter Cash Grazed by does and WEST Queen’s mares from 1507. Seat Emparked by James V Alleris EAST from 1539-42 and again Darnoe by James VI in 1606 Darnoe

Ballingall Burn WOOD WOOD

Bowingtrie Kilgour Arraty Burn Captain’s Meadow Falkland Stables and Meadow The Hay Yard Trenches Falkland Palace Part of James V’s Nuthill House extension 1539-42 Falkland Maspie Burn

KEY Park Boundary certain Contains Ordnance Survey Park Boundary Uncertain Data © Crown copyright Alleris Area of the park and database right 2015 Water courses, woods and roads are modern

Falkland Park at its largest extent in the reign of James V around 1540.

Falconry

Courtiers, both men and women, wooded areas and killed by overtaking enjoyed hawking both on foot and on their prey in a short sprint and sinking horseback. Their prey could be any kind their talons into it. Both types of birds of wild fowl, partridges, pheasants, were common at the Scottish court. cranes, herons, plovers, wild duck James IV favoured the peregrine falcon and geese. When hawking they flew but he also flew goshawks which were either falcons which were long-winged considered to be the more efficient hawks like the peregrine falcon or killers. Wild fowl could be killed by using short winged-hawks like the goshawk, crossbows with blunt-headed bolts sparrow hawk and buzzard. The long- but later in the 16th century firearms winged hawks flew in open spaces and came into use. Since hawks could be killed their prey by flying to a great carried and released when suitable height and then diving down in a ‘stoop’ game appeared or was raised by beaters to stun or kill it with a glancing blow. hawking could be enjoyed while on the Short–winged hawks were flown in move. Park Expenses

[Prices in brackets are estimates. Prices are given in old money:- 12d = 1s and 20s = £1. d = penny and s = shilling. Nowadays a shilling would be 5p but to get the equivalent worth it would be necessary to multiply the 16th century sums by 1200 or more. The estimated value of payments in cereals is given in brackets.]

Maintenance costs:- July 1503 – July 1504 Cost/Value

To repair banks, ditches and pales of the park £2 3s 4d

To maintain banks and ditches round meadows £2

Compensation for grazing in the ward now annexed £4 4s to the park

For mowing and storing hay £12 13s 4d

To feed boar in Falkland [7s] - 1 boll 2 firlots 2 pecks of malt

To feed 5 boar, 3 swans from 5th Oct to 25 Dec [£3 2s] - 1 chalder 15 bolls of oats

To maintain banks, ditches and pales of the park [£3 4s] - 2 chalders of oats

To repair ditches/banks round meadows of Falkland [£1 12s] - 1 chalder of oats

Total (approximate) £28 5s 8d Hunting The Chase

In the medieval period there were two ways of chasing deer.

1) Par Force Hunting This method of hunting was introduced to Britain by the French in the 11th and 12th centuries and meant hunting by force of hounds. In a par force hunt three or four relays of hounds were set out in advance along the expected course of the hunt. A relay was two or three couples of hounds with huntsmen who would join the hunt as it passed adding fresh impetus to the chase. In this type of hunt scenting hounds or rauchs were used to find the deer and then to raise it or unharbour it at the start of the chase. Near the end of the hunt faster hounds, such as greyhounds in a park it may have been necessary like Scots deerhounds which hunted by to use hounds to stop the hunted sight might be released to hunt in pairs deer disturbing the rest of the herd or to bring down the deer. entering a meadow. If these dogs were released to join in the hunt it would be 2) Coursing a par force hunt but if they were kept on Coursing had been practised in Scotland the leash then it would be more like a at least since Celtic times. When coursing, course. a deer would be raised but it would be chased throughout by greyhounds with The Drive no relays being added in. The drive was the traditional style of There is no clear record of how deer hunting in Scotland throughout the were chased in a park but it seems medieval period. In this type of hunt likely that both these methods would deer were driven towards the hunters. be combined. The deer would be raised Sometimes the chief hunters would and then either hunted by scenting be involved in driving the deer but hounds or by greyhounds depending on sometimes others called a stable or a whether the hunt was to be more like tinchell would drive the game to the a par force hunt or a course. However, hunters. The size of these drives could Opp page: Chasing deer par force from an early- 15th-century French manuscript of the Livre de Chasse by Gaston de Foix. Source: Bibliothèque nationale de France. Livre de Chasse ms Français 616.

Left: A Drive from an early-15th-century manuscript of the Livre de Chasse. Source: Bibliothèque nationale de France. Livre de Chasse ms Français 616.

Alternatively, as happened in France and England in the 16th century, selected deer might be driven into a fold or pen and then released singly either for a greyhound to course or for the hunters to shoot with bows or crossbows as they passed their seat.

Stalking

Stalking is recorded in Scotland from the Celtic period onwards. It was the cheapest and simplest method of vary from a small quiet affair to a large hunting but could also be the hardest. show hunt such as the king might have It was a waiting game hiding beside a held in Glenfinglas in the Trossachs known deer track or behind some sort or Glen Artney in Perthshire where of mobile camouflage. Alternatively the considerable numbers of deer would be hunter could follow the deer on foot driven to the waiting hunters. The place sometimes using traps or nets to snare where the hunters waited to kill the the quarry though the use of nets when deer with crossbows or short hunting hunting was usually frowned upon by bows or at a later date with guns was noble society. called a seat and this gave rise to the name Queen’s Seat in Falkland Park. In addition the place-name, Bowingtrie, in the park may record the well-known custom whereby the hunter stood awaiting the driven game with his back to a tree so that the game did not see him. In a park it would normally just be a small number of deer which were driven since the herd would soon be destroyed if hundreds of deer were killed in a drive. Hunting at Falkland with the Stewart Monarchs

James II (1437-1460) and Mary of Gueldres (1449-1463)

James II married Mary of Gueldres then to the park with its meadows, in 1449. Two years later she received wilder woods and watery spaces, Falkland and its park as part of the perhaps even with an area at the far end marriage settlement. Mary had come for open air celebrations. from Gueldres in Holland and had been brought up at the court of the In an age when noble women led a wealthy and powerful duke of Burgundy secluded and enclosed life a park in north-east France. There she had was one of the few places where they acquired the culture of the court and could go out, hawk and hunt and move seen at first hand the operation of some around freely. It is also worth noting of their deer parks such as the famous that another woman, Marjory Baty, park at Hesdin in northern France which was helping the park keeper, George the Scots had visited when negotiating Bannatyne. Although never called the her marriage to James. As a pawn in forester she was in effect acting as the a system of dynastic and economic forester in charge of the herd of cattle, alliances she was whisked off to far enclosing the woods and meadows, away Scotland and not surprisingly tried maintaining these enclosures and to create some memories of home in delivering fuel from the park to Mary of her Scottish surroundings. She seems Gueldres’ chamber in the castle. to have influenced building works in the castle, appointed a regular gardener Mary and James kept 40-50 horses in and had two ponds constructed in the park, perhaps as a stud, but very the hay yard. It was at this time that little is known about their use of the a start was made to redesigning the park for hunting. A contemporary park by enclosing the meadows and portrait of James which shows a fallow some of the woods. The park was being buck in full antler sitting beside him on compartmentalized so that different the ground suggests that he did keep activities such as grazing cattle, hunting fallow deer but tells us nothing about deer and producing timber and fuel Falkland in particular. What is known is could all co-exist efficiently. Falkland that he and Mary had hounds with them Park started to fall into the European when they visited Falkland and shortly pattern seen at Hesdin where one before Mary’s death in 1463 boar were progressed from the castle to the introduced to the park. domesticated space of a garden and James II aged 27 from the diary of Georg von Ehingen who visited Scotland in 1458. This is a contemporary portrait. Source: Stuttgart Württembergische Landesbibliothek. Cod. Hist. qt. 141, fol. 97. James IV (1488-1513)

James III seldom went to Falkland but, so far as the surviving records tell, his son, James IV, made a series of short visits between 1488 and 1508. He started to develop the palace to the south of the castle and longer stays of about a week did occur during the buck and stag-hunting season in July 1489 and May and September 1501. In January 1504 he stayed for a week just after the death of his younger brother James, Archbishop of St Andrews. After 1508, however, he seems to have visited seldom if at all.

James’ enjoyment of falconry is suggested in a copy of a contemporary portrait which shows him holding a peregrine falcon on his left hand and a bow perch in his right. James would often be found hawking when on his travels and he hawked at Falkland in December 1490. Because Falkland and James IV with a peregrine falcon on his left hand and a the River Eden were a good area for bow perch on his right. He would normally have worn a this sport he based four of his team of hawking glove to protect his left hand. This is a copy by H.H.R. Woolford in 1955 of a painting by Daniel Mytens falconers at Falkland, Dandy Doule, c. 1600. Mytens' painting is a copy of the original © The John Man, John Baty and Donald Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. Falconer, while others rented lands elsewhere in Fife. In 1504 he had a new loch built in the park which was stocked with pike but which would have provided a habitat for certain wild fowl suitable for hawking.

As a Renaissance prince James was not averse to innovation and in January 1508 he bought a new-fangled gun, a culverin, which was small enough to carry. After practice he went stalking deer in Falkland Park in May in the company of John Methven but the outcome of their stalk is not in Falkland Park for the wedding at recorded. Another likely innovation Holyrood. By using oats as a lure eight was associated with his marriage to red deer stags were captured in a fold, Margaret Tudor, sister of Henry VIII, a small animal enclosure, in the park on 8th August 1503. While Margaret and were duly sent live to Edinburgh. travelled north from England James This is the first record in Scotland of the prepared for the wedding festivities. transport of live deer, a practice which In July he organized a stalker and two continued for at least the next four years servants to take stags and other game of James reign.

Transporting Live Deer

At first sight it might appear rather odd to transport deer alive but in an age before refrigeration it was a means of providing fresh venison to hang for the royal table wherever it was required. It also enabled royal parks to be restocked with deer as at Stirling when it was being renewed in the early 16th century.

At Falkland there seem to have been two people mainly in charge of the arrangements for transporting live deer. The first was Andrew Matheson, the deputy keeper of the palace, who organized and financed the capture and transport of live deer as well as transporting deer himself. The second was Master Edmund Levisay, an usher in Margaret Tudor’s household, who would have been in charge of security and access to the queen’s chambers. In addition he seems to have been an expert in capturing and carrying live deer, a practice which had been common in England since the13th century. Within three months of his arrival in Scotland he was to be found at Falkland catching deer for the king and using ropes and nets to so do. This was ‘business hunting’ to provide for the larder, not ‘leisure hunting’. There would be no question of hunting the deer par force or coursing them. They would have been captured as simply and easily as possible.

Live deer, usually fallow deer, were transported in a litter carried between two horses one behind the other. This rather resembled a sedan chair but in this case a box or crate of some sort would have been attached between the poles and within this the deer would be secured. Certain horses trained especially for this duty were known as litter horses. The Trenches are in the centre. The view is looking north towards the area of James V’s extension of the park.

By transporting deer to other parks and areas. In the latter case the grazing was no doubt hunting deer himself James designated specifically for does and placed quite a strain on the deer herd. mares thus providing, perhaps, an area In 1507, for example, at least 37 deer which could have remained undisturbed were taken from the park, 12 live and when he was hunting bucks in the main 25 dead. In medieval deer parks which park. He also restocked the park in had a cropping rate of around10% this 1505 by sending John Balfour into the would have needed a herd of at least surrounding countryside with rauchs, 370 deer. This size of crop seems to scenting hounds, to drive deer to the have required that James increase the park and into the hay yard which had size of the herd. He, therefore, made been specially prepared to receive two extensions to the park, firstly into them. It has also been suggested that the ward of Falkland in 1503 and then the earthworks called the Trenches into the area of Cash in 1508 in order to the west of Falkland may also have to provide extra grazing. Throughout been involved in catching and sorting the 16th century compensation had to deer to restock the park but after recent be paid to the previous users of these excavation this now seems unlikely.

Year Number of deer transported Destination 1504 15 Stirling 1505 6+ Stirling 1506 22+ Stirling, Edinburgh 1507 11+ Stirling, Edinburgh, Linlithgow James V (1513-42)

James V’s personal reign began in 1528 Glenfinglas, Balquhidder and Glen when he escaped from the clutches of Artney in the Highlands and Megget in his stepfather, Archibald Douglas Earl of Ettrick Forest in the Borders Falkland Angus. In 1530s when James started to was close at hand. turn his father’s residence into a truly Renaissance style palace he frequently When James was 16 he plotted with stayed at Falkland. In 1539 and 1541 his mother Margaret to break away he spent almost a quarter of the year from the control of the earl of Angus. there staying for anything from one to She was resident in Stirling Castle and four nights at a time but on occasions had by this time fallen out with Angus for two weeks or more - plenty of time and divorced him. James rode from to supervise the building works and to Edinburgh to Stirling at the end of May go hunting in the park. When James with the Great Seal of Scotland and set did not have the time to travel to his up his own government there. However, favoured hunting areas in Glen Tilt, the story told by the contemporary

The Renaissance façade of Falkland Palace. chronicler Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie 100 men were left to guard him. James was much more colourful and is worth saw his chance to escape. He plotted repeating here since Pitscottie claimed with Andrew Fernie and got him to that Andrew Fernie , the hereditary summon neighbouring lairds with their forester of Falkland at the time was speediest dogs to come to Falkland one of the sources for his chronicle. At Wood the next day at 7.00am to slay ‘a Easter 1528 James Beaton, Archbishop fat buck or two’. James then had supper of St Andrews and a former keeper of prepared for himself and ordered Falkland Palace, entertained James V, breakfast for 4am the next morning. the earl of Angus and other Douglas He told James Douglas that he would nobles in St Andrews. James spent his be hunting in the morning and went time hunting and hawking on the River to bed. During the night he disguised Eden but when Angus and most of the himself as one of the stable hands, went nobles left to attend to their own affairs to the stables, saddled a horse and rode he moved to Falkland to hunt deer in off with two servants to Stirling. the park there. Only James Douglas and

The Guidman of Ballengeich

Many tales were told about James V travelling the country in disguise as the ‘guidman of Ballengeich’ to find out what people’s lives were really like. Since James spent a lot of time at Falkland several tales grew up relating to his wanderings in that area. In one of them James was out hunting fallow deer and became separated from the other hunters. The 18th-century song written about this tale continues

‘As he was hunting his fair fallow deer And of all his nobles he freely gat clear In search of new pleasures away he did ride Till he came to an ale-house just by a road-side.”

There James met a tinker (a travelling workman), called John of the Vale, and sat down to drink with him. The tinker confided in James that he longed to see the king while he was out hunting. James, saying that he could arrange that, took him on his horse to join the royal hunting party. The tinker fell off the horse in surprise when he realised that his drinking companion had been none other than the king himself. James then made the tinker a knight with an income of £300 per year. And was this tale true? On 17 April 1540 20s had to be paid to an ale house in Cash ‘quhar the kingis graice drank he beand at the huntyn.’ James V aged 24 when he visited France in 1536-7. Style of Corneille de Lyon from the Corridor at Polesden Lacey, © National Trust Images/ Derrick E Witty. James often hunted and hawked Andrew Fernie to construct the pale along the River Eden and, according around the extension and to take to Pitscottie, shortly after his marriage measures to improve the woods within to Mary of Guise in June 1537 in St it. However, after James’ death in 1542 Andrews he went to Falkland where he, Mary of Guise did not maintain these and presumably Mary, hunted fallow extensions. She rented out Darnoe deer for a few days. The de Guises were and ran into problems with the larger a well-known hunting family in France extension. James had taken the land and in 1550 Mary’s brother, Francis, from William Scott of Balwearie, a local would be appointed Grand Chasseur laird, in a peremptory fashion without (Grand Hunter) by King Henry II. When consulting the royal council. Balwearie James visited France in 1536-7 to claimed he had lost £10,000 worth of arrange his first marriage to Madeleine woods and went to court to reclaim the he stayed at Chinon in late October 1536 land, a claim which the Court of Session and hunted boar there with Francis upheld. I, the Dauphin Henry and the king of Navarre. Henry was seriously injured During James’ reign Falkland Palace when the boar charged him but the king and the park made a favourable of Navarre saved him. impression on all who saw it. Sir David Lindsay of the Mount, a tutor and close Several years later in 1541 James friend of James, wrote a poem called imported boar from France and had the ‘Last Testament of the Papingo’ (the them brought to Falkland where he Dying Statement of the Parrot) in which had a special fold built for them in the the dying parrot gives the king advice park. James, however, had learnt form and then takes farewell of his favourite his experience in France and made sure palaces including Falkland. he was equipped with a specialized boar spear which had a cross bar about Fare weill Faulkland, the fortrace of Fyfe 30cms from the point so that the boar Thy polite [elegant] park under the when it charged onto the spear could Lowmound law not get too close. Sum tyme in the I led ane lustie [merry] lyfe With his regular visits to Falkland and The fallow deir to see them raik [graze] the park James was taking many more on raw deer out of the park than his father had Court men to cum to the, they stand done. He had seen French palaces with greit aw their large parks and heavily wooded Sayand, thy Burgh bene [cosy], of all forests and he clearly was trying to burrowis bail [sorrowful], replicate their facilities in Scotland. In Because in the thay never gat gude aill. 1538 he incorporated Darnoe in the park as extra grazing for does and then Clearly the palace and the park made a in 1539 he decided to make a larger much better impression in the sixteenth extension to the west and ordered century than the ale-houses. Mary Queen of Scots (1542-1567)

After the death of James V at the age of 30 in 1542 Mary of Guise acted as regent since their daughter Mary was only 6 days old. To secure an alliance of France and Scotland Mary of Guise arranged a marriage for her daughter with the dauphin of France. In 1548 Mary was sent to France to be brought up in the manners and culture of the French court and it was there, in the parks surrounding the various French châteaux where she stayed such as Amboise, Blois, Chambord and Châtellerhault that Mary learnt to hunt and hawk.

Mary Queen of Scots dressed in mourning white in 1560 after the death of her father-in-law Henry As a teenager she was keen to follow II and her mother Mary of Guise. Artist: Unknown the ladies of the court, such as Diane after Francois Clouet. Title: Mary Queen of Scots de Poitiers and the queen, Catherine 1542-1587. Reigned 1542-1567 (in white mourning). de Medici, when they hunted in the © Scottish National Portrait Gallery.

Hunting in France

One of the most popular methods of hunting in the French court at this time was the par force hunt, the chasse à la courre (running hunt) as the French called it. Also popular at the court of Henry II of France was the chasse aux toiles (hunt with screens) in which long panels of canvas or other material were set out to enclose a large area which contained deer or boar. The screens were also set out so that the game could be channeled into a smaller enclosure or killing zone which the French called an accoure or a parc – not to be confused with the normal hunting park where deer were kept permanently. Deer or boar would then be driven into the channel and released into the killing zone as required. The king or other hunters would confront the game on foot and kill it in a kind of gladiatorial combat which spectators could watch from outside the screens. On at least one occasion Queen Elizabeth of England is recorded using a version of this type of hunt where a stand was built for her beside the killing enclosure. The Louis XII façade of the château of Blois built c1500. neighbouring heavily wooded forest. hill and down dale and easier to control While Mary presumably learnt to hunt than stallions. Hunting par force or à la in a variety of ways she seems to have courre was not without its dangers and preferred to hunt par force. According to Mary suffered a hunting accident near the English attachés to the French court Blois in December 1559 when she rode Mary liked to ‘run the hart’ and was into a branch and was knocked off her keen to ride geldings (castrated horses) horse as other courtiers galloped past since they were fast across country, up without seeing her. In Falkland Mary probably hunted much park on horseback chasing a deer with as she would have done in a French park Thomas Randolph, Queen Elizabeth’s by chasing deer in a combination of par resident at the Scottish court. While force hunting and coursing as described they were hunting, a servant brought earlier. She may well have employed a a letter to Randolph to give to Mary version of the chasse aux toiles where from the young and slightly mad James deer were released from a fold to run Hamilton, third Earl of Arran, who was past a stand where the hunters shot obsessed with her. His letter warned the deer or where they sat on a hillock Mary of a plot to kidnap her organized and watched deer being chased or by James Hepburn, fourth Earl of coursed by greyhounds when they Bothwell, the same Bothwell who would were released from the fold. There were eventually become her third husband. several hillocks in the park which could The point here is that the plot rested on have provided such vantage points one the fact that Mary was known to hunt of which was used by James VI in the almost daily in the park with only a Gowrie-conspiracy hunt in 1600. small retinue. In this the plotters were particularly well informed because the In the first four years of her reign Mary court’s household accounts tell us that visited Falkland for a total of one to the main part of her household was still two weeks each year usually around in St Andrews. Easter time. In 1562 she started her visit to Fife in early March spending about Mary returned to Fife in 1563 and was two weeks in St Andrews which was her in St Andrews on 22 February for the favourite residence in Fife. On 21 March execution of a French courtier who was she rode to Falkland via Cupar and on infatuated with her and had smuggled 30 March she was out hunting in the himself into her bedroom in Rossend

A 16th-Century print by the German engraver Virgil Solis showing a par force hunt in progress. Notice in the centre of the frieze the lady riding pillion sideways behind the gentleman. Notice also the relay, the huntsman with his hound hiding behind a tree on the left. Castle in Burntisland eight days of being a young queen in a fractious previously. News arrived on 15 March of male court and with her sadness at the the assassination of her uncle Francis, news of the death of her uncle. She Duke of Guise. Randolph saw this as the spent her time on the sporting activities beginning of the ‘Queen’s sorrows’ and which she enjoyed most and when in wrote that Mary ‘has taken pleasure to her house in St Andrews she tried to ride up and down hawking and hunting forget the responsibilities pressing in on daily from place to place.’ On 20 March her by playing the bourgeois housewife she went to Falkland, escorted by till she felt once more that she had the Randolph who recorded that she felt strength to be the queen. destitute of friendship. Mary left the main part of her retinue at St Andrews or Falkland and conducted a circuit of loyal lairds in Fife, hunting and hawking as she went and returning to Falkland every so often. Mary spent three months in Fife dealing both with the problems

Ladies on Horseback

Mary Queen of Scots preferred to hunt riding astride as ladies had done throughout the medieval period since it let the rider have far better control of the horse when riding at speed. At this time, when riding, ladies wore either a wider looser skirt or a form of split skirt called a devantière. Sometimes even breeches or thick serge stockings were worn.

Since the second half of the 14th century women had also ridden horses on a sideways facing seat but to hunt like this they depended on riding pillion behind a male rider onto whom they clung for safety. This was probably considered a more decorous riding style for ladies than riding astride but it was extremely difficult. It was still used, however, in the 16th century and an illustration by the German engraver, Virgil Solis, shows a lord and lady hunting in this manner.

Catherine de Medici, the wife of Henry II, King of France, is credited with introducing to the French court the more practical side-saddle where the lady’s right leg was hooked round a pommel on the saddle. The huntress could then face forward, control the horse but still hunt in what was considered to be a more becoming style. James VI (1567-1625)

Of all the Stewart monarchs James of royal palaces including Falkland. VI was the one who spent most time In 1600 herons had not been nesting hunting in the park at Falkland. After his in the park and so when they started marriage to Anne of Denmark in 1589 to nest again he ordered that no one James granted her Falkland Palace as should hawk or shoot herons anywhere part of her dowry. He hunted daily in in a broad swathe of Scotland between the park when he was in residence and Strathearn, Fife and the Carse of Gowrie particularly liked to hunt bucks because in order to give their numbers a chance of their antlers or ‘spekinges’ (spikings) to increase. as he called them. He killed so many bucks that in 1586 he had to appeal to Elizabeth of England for a shipment of fallow bucks to restock the park. They duly arrived at Musselburgh and James had them transferred to Leith for the crossing to Fife. He then escorted them personally into the park. When in 1591 he once more over-hunted the park he again appealed to Elizabeth for 70 fallow bucks to be sent north but due to difficulties in catching the deer alive with nets called buckstalls none were ever sent. It was, therefore, all the more important that James did all he could to preserve what game there was in the park.

In 1580s David Murray of Gospetrie, the king’s Master of the Stable, replaced William Fernie as hereditary forester. James encouraged Murray, to be much more proactive in maintaining the park and the game within it. He had to feed oats to the deer in the ‘stormis of winter’ as well as taking care of the royal stud. He was urged to remove all the cattle which did not belong to the king and to arrest, try and fine anyone caught James VI aged 20 attributed to Adrian Vanson, court painter to James VI. Image used with cutting trees or hunting and killing permission of the National Trust of Scotland. game without permission. In 1594 he forbad anyone to kill deer within 6 miles James’ finances were in bad shape and them when they were being hunted, Falkland Palace suffered as a result. thus providing better sport. Despite When Fynes Morrison visited Falkland this visit James’ departure south in in 1599 he said that the king was there 1603 marked the end of the heyday of ‘to follow the pastimes of hunting, for Falkland as a royal hunting park. which this ground is much commended. But’, he wrote, ‘the Palace was of old building and almost ready to fall having nothing in it remarkable.’ The exchequer had tried to get James to increase the livestock which he kept in his parks and forests but at Falkland, at least, James resisted these moves. Deer remained the top priority and he continued to spend a month at a time in Falkland pursuing his sport. The park was still used as a source of game for the royal table and in 1577 the regent, James Douglas, Earl of Morton, had ordered William Fernie, the keeper of the park and palace, to send him two barren does (female fallow deer without calves) for the wedding of James Stewart with Lady Buccleuch in Edinburgh.

As we have seen, James liked to hunt by chasing the deer and he was keen to improve his techniques for par force hunting. He sought help from English horsemen and kennelmen in 1586 and in 1600 they or their successors may have been the unnamed Englishmen who hunted with him in August. After he became king of England in 1603 he did not forget Falkland. In 1606 he finally confirmed that Easter Cash was part of the park and had it properly enclosed. When he made a return visit to Scotland in 1617 he spent two weeks in Falkland. Prior to his visit he had asked for certain parts of the park pale to be broken down so that the deer could get used to the gaps and so would run through The Impact of the Park

Over the centuries the park had a On the other hand the local population mixed effect on the local population. were excluded from the resources of the Neighbouring lairds benefitted from park and no doubt suffered when deer the regular presence of the court in Fife escaped from the park or were hunted by receiving patronage and preferment outside the pale. No one could hunt from the crown. The inhabitants of or kill a deer which escaped from the Falkland and local farmers benefitted park even if it was on their own land. from the market opportunities of To judge by parliamentary enactments supplying the palace and housing the and by James VI’s instructions to David overflow of courtiers and their servants Murray poaching in parks had been a when the court was in residence. They problem since the 15th century but the also enjoyed the benefits of the trading first specific reference to poachers in monopoly conveyed when Falkland was Falkland is in 1605 when Alex Morrison made a royal burgh in 1458. and William Haig, servants to one of the local lairds, were exiled from Fife for poaching a deer in the park.

Showing the burgh around the palace. Falkland Palace and Park painted c1639 for Charles I. Artist: Alexander Keirincx. Title: Falkland Palace and the Howe of Fife. © Scottish National Portrait Gallery.

Later History

The park struggled on after James VI’s and continued enthusiastically by departure south but in the absence the Bruce family when they bought of regular royal visits poaching the estate and became keepers in increased, the pale was broken down 1820. Walls were built, water courses and the deer were not tended. Under re-channeled and a new drainage Cromwell in 1652 some of the wood system constructed. Woodlands were was cut, reportedly for a new citadel planted in various places throughout and barracks in Perth and troops were the park: the spinneys or the hillocks stationed in the park in 1653. After to the east of the Dunshelt road, John, second Earl of Atholl, was granted Lawson’s Knowe, Cash Wood and Cash the estate, including the park, in 1662 Loch. In 1871 advice on planting and he started to rent out the lands of the woodland management was given to park as small holdings. When Daniel Col. Hamilton Tyndal-Bruce’s factor, Defoe, the author of Robinson Crusoe, Major William Wood, by the well-known visited in 1708 the pale survived only forester, James Brown. The mixture of ‘here and there’, the oak trees had gone species found in these woods today and much of the land was under the still shows signs of his work. These plough. The present appearance of the improvements continued throughout park is the result of the agricultural the 19th century and by 1900 the park improvements and enclosures started had very much taken on its present in the late 18th century by the Skenes appearance. of Hallyards, keepers of the palace and owners of the estate in 1787 The Park Today

1) The Stables (NO2540760)2

In the time of James V and VI the stables lay across the road from the building presently called the stables. This was where the hunt met before heading out into the park and the park gate must have been more or less where the present gates to the palace now are. James V had quite a sports complex here with tennis court, archery butts, and the ‘nethir chow’, probably an area for a stick and ball game of some sort. Site of Stables at Falkland Palace. 2) Spinneys and hillocks to east of Dunshelt road (NO258081)

It was on one of the small wooded mounds to the east of the Dunshelt road (B 936) that James VI watched the hunt begin in August 1600. In the 19th century these hillocks were unsuitable for agriculture either because they had been quarried or because of their hilly terrain and so they were planted with trees sometime between 1821 and 1830. They have been altered by cutting and planting since then.

Four hillocks/spinneys in middle distance. 3) The palace from the park (NO257088)

From the Darnoe track the view south towards Falkland shows how the palace and castle nestled in at the foot of the Lomonds and how the park could have set off the view of the castle to best advantage at the end of a long vista between woods.

2 Grid references relate to the Ordnance Survey Looking southwest from the park to the palace at Maps of the area. the foot of the Lomond Hills. Strathmiglo River Eden Dunshelt 5 Raecruik

Woodmill Wester Cash Easter Cash 6 Nochnary Queen’s Cash Loch 4 Seat Lawson’s Knowe Darnoe Ballingall Burn 7 Falklandwood Cash Wood 3 Pillars of Hercules 2

Kilgour Chancefield Arraty Burn 8 1 Falkland Palace

Falkland Maspie Burn 1km 1 mile Tour of Falkland Park Contains Ordnance Survey Data © Crown copyright and database right 2015

4) The Queen’s Seat (NO252093) 5) The Dunshelt Earthwork (NO246102) In 1919 the field to the north of the most northerly wooded spinney to the east of This iron age earthwork is surrounded the Dunshelt road was called the Queen’s by three ditches which are clearly visible Seat. Often field names can tell us about and is a reminder that this area was the earlier history of the area and this occupied long before the creation of a name may refer to the spot where one of hunting forest and park. The earthwork the queens of Scotland, perhaps Mary of seems to have been included within the Gueldres, Mary Queen of Scots or Mary park pale and its entrance which can still of Guise, waited for deer to be driven to be seen as a level track across the ditches her or where she watched deer being faces north into the park. One wonders released from a fold and coursed by if Mary of Gueldres may have used this greyhounds. The last wooded hillock to earthwork for open-air feasts perhaps the north (NO253087) would have made linked to hunts just like the wooden an ideal viewing point. banqueting hall which was constructed at the far end of the park of Hesdin. Interestingly, a similar earthwork close to Stirling castle and within the park was thought of in the 14th century as King Arthur’s ‘round table’. 6) Cash Loch Wood (NO242094)

Cash Loch was probably made in the second half of the 17th century or thereafter to supply water to the Wood Mill which was used by the earl of Atholl’s tenants in the park.

The wood on the north side of the loch contains some very old alder stools Dunshelt Earthwork. which may go back as far as the 18th century. They may be descended from alder trees which once grew in the park and which in the late 16th century gave the name Alleris or Alders to the south western third of the park. In the 19th century horse chestnut and hornbeam were planted to improve the wood and a hawthorn hedge the remains of which can still be seen was planted to mark the northern boundary.

7) Cash Wood (NO237087)

The remains of the park pale can be seen running along the eastern edge of the wood. Excavations in 2016 led by Oliver O’Grady found that there had been an internal ditch which was filled in when ploughing started in the park in 17th and 18th centuries. Remains of a post-hole for the fence on top of the Cash Loch Wood. bank were also found. The discovery of 13th-century pottery in the bank and ditch dated the construction of the pale to the 13th century. There is a section of walling on the east side of the pale which may have been added in the early 17th century when Charles I approved a plan to put a wall round the park. It has been suggested that the hollow running on the west side of the bank might have been a track used by the park keeper’s servants when they were working The park pale in Cash Wood looking north. The park lay on the right of the bank. Excavation of the Trenches in 2016. The Trenches.

on the pale but the 2016 excavations Community excavation, the Big Dig of showed that this feature or track is post- 2016 financed by LLLP and led again by medieval and not directly connected Oliver O’Grady, showed that one of the with the park pale. tracks had been maintained by cutting through the rock and by regularly 8) The Trenches and the Arraty Burn shovelling out earth and sand which (NO234079) washed into it. The excavation also showed that the track had been used This large earthwork is a genuine from approximately 1100AD to 1700AD. puzzle. The trenches make the shape of a large V with two smaller V’s inside After it had been replaced by a new it. They are about 2.5 to 3 metres deep route further south it might have been and 220 metres long. Originally they used as a system to guide deer into a stretched about 45 metres farther east. kill zone just as elricks had been used elsewhere in Scotland. Intriguingly two Satellite imagery which penetrates place-names, first recorded in the 18th through vegetation to the ground shows century, suggest that the Trenches had that these earthworks are the remains something to do with hunting. A gully of an old trackway. Such tracks are running north off the Lomonds towards often seen when carts or animal hooves the south east of the Trenches was called break the surface allowing water to Grewhound Den (Greyhound Den) and erode the ground underneath. As one the field across the Arraty Burn at the track becomes boggy or impassable foot of the Trenches was called Deerends traffic moves to a nearby track. At the which suggests that deer were killed Trenches traffic is concentrated towards there at some time. If this earthwork was a suitable crossing of the Arraty Burn ever used for this purpose - and it does to the west. Similar features exist in the seem unlikely - it would need to have woods on the other side of the burn been after it had ceased to be used as a where traffic carried on north to Perth trackway and when deer could still be and west to Kinross. found in the area. Further Reading

J. G Harrison, The Creation and Survival of some Scots Royal Landscapes, available online at www.johnscothist.com.

J Gilbert ‘Falkland Park to c1603’ in the Tayside and Fife Archaeological Journal vol 19 – 20 ( 2013-2014) at pp 78-102

S. Lasdun, The English Park, Royal Private and Public (1991) Andre Deutsch, London.

J Fletcher, Gardens of Earthly Delight, The History of Deer Parks (2011) Windgather Press, Oxford.

Acknowledgements

The author is indebted to the Living Lomonds Landscape Partnership, Falkland Stewardship Trust, Ninian Crichton-Stuart and Helen Lawrenson for their generous support and assistance in producing this publication. Thanks also go to Claire Hubbard for her excellent work in the setting and designing of the booklet and to Marietta Crichton Stuart for reading the draft and offering helpful comments. The author has also depended on the work of John Harrison on royal parks, Simon Taylor on place-names, Peter Quelch and Coralie Mills on the history of the woods in the park (funded by LLLP), John Fletcher on the Trenches and on the behaviour and management of deer and Pamela McIlroy on the history of the Falkland Estate. Finally the contribution of the archaeologist, Oliver O’Grady, who excavated both the park pale and the Trenches has been invaluable. Nonetheless any errors remaining and the views expressed are the responsibility of the author alone.

Author: John M. Gilbert (2015)