Old Photograph Mountquhanie Castle Scotland

Old photograph of Mountquhanie Castle near Cupar, Fife, Scotland. The original building was a 16th century keep. The new castle was built in 1820 in the classic Georgian style. The original castle was deliberately ruined after the completion of Mountquhanie, or Mountquhannie, House in the 1830s. A small single storey laundry was constructed to the east of the tower house. Feather Cottage was used for estate workers housing and the upper portion of the circular tower was converted to a dovecote. The vaulted ground floor chambers were converted to an estate slaughterhouse and butcher shop. The slaughterhouse occupied the east chamber and had a large tree trunk built into the walls to support it just under the vault. This was used to hoist the carcases during the slaughtering process. The west chamber contained the butcher shop and two of the blocked window recesses were converted to smoke kilns for the curing of meat. The cattle were driven from Balquhidder to Mountquhanie each Martinmas and a butcher was brought from Cupar to slaughter the animals and cure the meat This practice continued into the fIrst half of this century when the slaughterhouse was abandoned. Blog post of interest to folks with ancestry, genealogy or Scottish Family Roots in Scotland who may wish to visit one day.



All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.

View the most recent Tour Scotland photographs.