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September 10, 2018 by Alexander Meldrum
Falkland Palace, in Falkland, Fife, Scotland, is a royal palace of the Scottish Kings. Today it is under the stewardship of the Marquess of Bute, who delegates most of his duties to The National Trust...Falkland Palace, in Falkland, Fife, Scotland, is a royal palace of the Scottish Kings. Today it is under the stewardship of the Marquess of Bute, who delegates most of his duties to The National Trust for Scotland.
Early years
Falkland Palace & gardens
Before Falkland Palace was built a hunting lodge existed on the site in the 12th century. This lodge was expanded in the 13th century and became a castle which was owned by the Earls of Fife – the famous Clan MacDuff.
The castle was built here because the area could be easily defended as it was on a slight hill. The surrounding land eventually became the Palace gardens.
There was a great wood of oaks to the north between the royal stable and the River Eden, with many groves merging into the surrounding parkland.
Timber was occasionally cut in the forest for royal ships of war. The castle would also have been surrounded by meadows, fields, orchards, glades and Falkland Park which was a managed forest surrounded by a Pale, which is a ditch with a fence on top of it.
This pale would have been used to keep game inside the park for the royal family and courtiers to hunt. The land near the palace which is currently the orchard would have originally been meadows. The castle and the palace would have had their own orchard somewhere close by.
In 1371 Falkland Castle was destroyed by an invading English army.
In 1402 Robert, Duke of Albany imprisoned his nephew and rival David, Duke of Rothesay, the eldest son of King Robert, in the Well Tower at Falkland. The incarcerated Duke eventually died there from neglect and starvation.
Albany was exonerated from blame by Parliament, but suspicions of foul play persisted, suspicions which never left Rothesay's younger brother the future King James, and which would eventually lead to the downfall of the Albany Stewarts.
John Debrett, writing in 1805, was in no doubt of Duke Robert's motives and guilt:
This Robert, Duke of Albany, having obtained the entire government from his brother, King Robert, he caused the Duke of Rothesay to be murdered, thinking to bring the Crown into his own family; but to avoid the like fate.
King Robert resolved to send his younger son James, to France, then about nine years old, who being sea-sick, and forced to land on the English coast ... was detained a captive in England eighteen years.
At these misfortunes King Robert died of grief in 1406.
16th century improvements
Between 1501 and 1541 Kings James IV and James V transformed the old castle into a beautiful royal palace: with Stirling Castle it was one of two Renaissance palaces in Scotland.
To address the poor state of the garden and park, James V appointed a new Captain and Keeper, William Barclay, Master of Rhynd, in March 1527.
Ten years later, James V extended his father's buildings in French renaissance style. He built a Royal Tennis Court in the grounds of the Palace which was completed in 1541.
The court still survives to this day and is the oldest in Britain. James died at Falkland Palace in December 1542, from an illness induced by the shock and grief of his army's defeat at Solway Moss and of his wife's failure to give him a male heir,
instead giving birth to the future Mary, Queen of Scots.[4] His body lay in the Chapel Royal for almost a month and the Chapel was draped in black. On 4 January 1543 messengers ordered the gentlemen of Fife to convey the king's body to North Queensferry on its way to Holyrood Abbey.
The arms of the King of Scots at the gatehouse
Falkland became a popular retreat with all the Stewart monarchs. They practised falconry there and used the vast surrounding forests for hawking and for hunting deer.
Wild boar, imported from France, were kept in the Park, within a fence made by the Laird of Fernie.
They also loved using the Royal Tennis Court; Queen Mary became especially fond of the game, and it is recorded that she scandalised the people of Scotland by wearing men's breeches to play.
Nearby Myres Castle is the hereditary home of the Royal Macers and Sergeants at Arms who served Falkland Castle since at least the 16th century. John Scrimgeour of Myres supervised building at the Palace from 1532 to 1563.
Civil war
After the Union of the Crowns (1603), Kings James VI, Charles I, and Charles II all visited Falkland. A fire partially destroyed the palace during its occupation by Cromwell's troops, and it quickly fell into ruin.
Modern era
In 1952, the Hereditary Keeper Major Michael Crichton Stewart decided to appoint the National Trust for Scotland to take care of the Palace.
The National Trust thus became Deputy Keeper of the Palace, and they now care for and maintain the Palace and its extensive gardens. An NTS virtual tour of the palace is available.
In this photo:
