Spring Kellie Castle East Neuk Of Fife Scotland



Tour Scotland Spring 4K travel video of Kellie Castle on visit to the East Neuk of Fife. It is located near Arncroach and below the dominant hill in the area, Kellie Law. it is about 3 miles North of Pittenweem. The earliest records of Kellie go back to 1150 where it is mentioned in a charter issued by King David I. The first known owner was Robert of London, the illegitimate son of King William the Lion. By 1266 Kellie had passed to the Siward family, who had hailed from Northumbria and had assisted King Malcolm Canmore to overthrow Macbeth. The Siewards supported England during the wars of independence, 1296 to 1328, and as a result Sir Richard Sieward forfeited his lands in Scotland after Bannockburn. However his daughter Helena Sieward, “ Lady Kellie ” retained Kellie. None of the buildings they occupied appear to have survived. In about 1360 Helena, or Elena, assigned Kellie to her kinsman Walter Olifard, or Oliphant, of Aberdalgie who was married to Elizabeth, a daughter of Robert the Bruce. Thus began 250 years of occupation by the Oliphant family. The estate was signed over to a Siward relative, Walter Oliphant, in 1360 and the castle remained in the ownership of the Oliphant family until 1613. It was purchased by Sir Thomas Erskine, who had saved the life of King James VI during the Gowrie Conspiracy by killing Sir Alexander Ruthven. The King stayed at Kellie in 1617 during his only visit to Scotland after the Union of the Crowns, and he appointed Erskine as Earl of Kellie in 1619. Methven Erskine the 10th Earl of Kellie died in 1829 to be succeeded by John Francis Miller Erskine as 11th Earl of Kellie. The castle was abandoned by Erskine and cleared of its contents at a muckle roup or public auction, in 1830. John Francis Miller Erskine was confirmed as 26th Earl of Mar in 1835 and the Earldom of Kellie was united with the Earldom of Mar. The property then seems to have fallen to James Maitland Hog of Newliston, thereafter titled " of Newliston and Kellie ", but Hog made little use of the estate, and the castle lay abandoned for many years. In 1878 it was rented from the Earl of Mar and Kellie by James Lorimer, Regius Professor of Public Law at Edinburgh University, and father to Sir Robert Lorimer, the renowned Scottish architect. The Lorimer family set about restoring the castle for use as a holiday retreat, but it soon became the family home. Following the death of the professor the tenancy was taken by his wife Hannah in 1890. Robert Lorimer began the first of his alterations in 1900. On the death of Hannah in 1916 the tenancy was taken over by their son, John Henry Lorimer the famous Scottish painter. Upon John's death in 1936, the tenancy lapsed and the house was cleared and the castle once again became vacant. In 1936 Sir Robert's son, the sculptor Hew Lorimer and his wife Mary, renewed the Lorimer tenancy. Hew and Mary Lorimer purchased the castle in 1948 and it remained in his ownership until 1970. Hew Lorimer sold the castle in 1970.

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

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