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Muchalls Castle | |
---|---|
Aberdeenshire, Scotland | |
Site information | |
Open to the public | No |
Condition | In use |
Site history | |
Built | 1300 |
Built by | Frasers of Muchalls |
In use | Present |
Materials | Stone |
Muchalls Castle stands overlooking the North Sea in the countryside of Kincardine and Mearns, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The lower course is a well-preserved Romanesque, double-groined 13th-century tower house structure, built by the Frasers of Muchalls. Upon this structure, the 17th-century castle was begun by Alexander Burnett of Leys and completed by his son, Sir Thomas Burnett, 1st Baronet, in 1627. The Burnetts of Leys built the remaining four-storey present-day castle.
One of the most interesting castles in North-East Scotland, according to noted architectural historian Nigel Tranter, it is designed in the classic L style with a further extension wing at the west end. Muchalls Castle entered national history in 1638 when a seminal Covenanter gathering took place there, precedent the English Civil War.
The plasterwork ceilings of the principal drawing rooms are generally regarded as among the three finest examples of plasterwork ceilings in Scotland. These adornments date to 1624 and are in virtually perfect condition. They consist of heraldry of the Burnett of Leys family, along with heraldry of relations and friends intermixed with biblical iconography. The overmantel of the Great Hall fireplace features the arms of King James VI flanked by impressive egyptianesque figures.
The lower course of this L-plan castle is the original 14th-century ground level of the Clan Fraser tower house. On this level are a dungeon, a guard room, storerooms, a chamber for merchants and visitors waiting to see the Laird, and a medieval kitchen. In the medieval kitchen, the interior wall is over five metres thick, accommodating a hidden staircase and affording bearing strength to support the upper levels. A long hall passageway was constructed as a barrel vaulted design. The dungeon is noted for its small window and still has the large steel hinges to which the dungeon door would have attached. The medieval kitchen has its original 14th-century flagstones; moreover, this room features a large walk-in fireplace with a secret spiral staircase that servants would have used in medieval times to carry meals to the higher levels. (Servants at that time would have not been allowed on the main staircases used by the nobility who dwelt in the castle.) Ownership of the castle and lands passed to the Hays in the 15th century probably associated with the same real estate transaction of the lands of Ury in AD 1413.
The second floor level (referred to as the first floor in Scotland) is erected over the intact Middle Ages ground-level structure. Prominent exterior features are: a set of well-sculpted corbelled turrets; massive ranges of chimneys: a curtain-walled entrance courtyard with two sets of triple gun loops flanking the entrance arch; a subterranean crypt; and well-preserved 17th-century high-stone walled terraced gardens. The bartizans render interesting interior features in numerous of the bedrooms, providing interesting circular nooks with small lookout windows strategically placed at the upper building corners. There are numerous original arrow slits that indicate the original defensive nature of the structure; some of these arrow slits penetrate exterior walls that are over a metre thick. There are a number of crow-stepped gables associated with large chimneys at building endpoints. The castle itself is an A listed historical building; however, there are three further listed structures on the castle grounds, including a fine stone stable and a 17th-century dovecote.
The next level includes most of the principal reception rooms, including the Great Hall, the Ladies' Drawing Room and the Gentlemen's Study. These reception rooms are the main locations of the elaborate plasterwork; in fact, the ceilings of these three rooms are totally covered in original 17th-century plasterwork with heraldic coats of arms, biblical figures and other historical figures. The great hall fireplace has an original plasterwork overmantel featuring egyptianesque caryatid figures and the King James Arms. One can walk erect inside the fireplace and conduct a small meeting inside with bench seating built in. The firebox also hosts the Laird's Lug, a secret listening system allowing the Laird to overhear conversations in the Great Hall from his suite above.
The third level consists of a number of bedrooms: The Laird's Bedroom, The Priest's Bedroom, The Queen's Bedroom and The Queen's Winter Bedroom. The Queen naturally had a very elegant room in case she were to visit; in fact, she had a Winter Bedroom for inclement weather. Each of the bedrooms has a fireplace, as do some of the bathrooms. The bathrooms are a Victorian modification of what would have been dressing rooms in the 17th century.
Several generations of the Burnett of Leys family lived in Muchalls Castle. Later residents included James Robertson, Baron Robertson, President of the Scottish Court of Session, and Geraldine Simpson (née Pringle), heiress to the Pringle knitting fortune.
Muchalls Castle was the location of an important turning point in the Reformation in Scotland. In 1638 at Edinburgh signatories to a Covenant opposed the imposition of the Episcopal liturgical system then backed by the King. Aberdeen was one of the last holdouts to confirm this covenant, its opposition led by six scholars at Marischal College and King's College remembered as the Aberdeen doctors. Sir Thomas Burnett of Leys, Laird of Muchalls Castle, along with James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose, Dickson, Henderson, Lord Coupar, the Master of Forbes and others formed a delegation of Covenanters to approach the doctors. The doctors offered the Cup of Bon Accord to the Covenanters and had laid out an elaborate banquet; however, very dramatically, the Covenanters refused the Cup, stating they would not meet until the doctors had signed the Covenant. The doctors were very disturbed and composed a list of queries, demanding the Covenanters' response. Muchalls Castle was the site of the Covenanters' meeting where they drew up their plucky and learned response to the doctors. From this confrontation and other concomitant events, Charles I unexpectedly made sweeping reforms and concessions to the Covenanters including revocation of the Service Book and Canons, repeal of the Perth Articles and enjoined subscription to Craig's Negative Confession of 1580, a document condemning papal errors.
Ownership of Muchalls Castle passed from the Burnett of Leys family about 1882. A prominent owner of the castle in late Victorian times was James Robertson, Baron Robertson, Lord Advocate of Scotland.
The castle is perched near the apex of a large knoll overlooking the North Sea with a forest policy (woodland surrounding a large estate) of very old sycamore, elm and beech trees forming the northern and eastern policy boundaries. These trees form a canopy attaining 50 metres in height, and are the domain of rookeries of crow and jackdaw. There is a population of several hundred of these birds, which are commonly associated with other Scottish castles; in fact, the current owners have purchased a tangent northern parcel, which is known on historic maps as "Crow Woods" and is a similar forest of mature trees that house crow and jackdaw flocks.
The south-eastern, southern, and western exposures have a thinner lower woodland policy, historically to allow free viewing of the North Sea and expansive valley views to the south and west. The principal gardens are situated in a series of declining terraces on the western side of the castle. These gardens were studied by a historical landscape architect in 2001 and determined to be the original early 17th-century design, including enclosing drystone walls. Further evidence of the original design period is manifested by a subtle pattern in the western lawn nearest the castle, which has been documented to be undulations echoing an elaborate subsurface stonework pattern, a hallmark of the 17th-century garden plan. On the southern lawn, there is a rare species of tree known as the weeping elm. This specimen is one of the oldest in Scotland, measuring a height of 12 metres. There are a total of seven principal lawns summing up into an area of 52,300 square feet (4,860 m2).
Further there are a total of five agricultural fields as part of the castle estate, which are managed to accommodate cattle, sheep, and crops of wheat, barley, and hay. The castle is accessed via a private drive of about 3⁄4 mile (1.2 kilometres) long, which runs across the castle estate. One of the most intriguing discoveries of the 1990s was a hewn slab about two metres wide that spans a burn running along the southern portion of the estate. This slab had not been recorded on any of the historic maps from the most recent 200 years, but is the exact width needed to accommodate a carriage. This discovery was used to support the theory espoused by the present owners that the original castle access was from the south, and not the west as shown on maps of the last two centuries, and resulted in securing council approval to reconstruct the ancient approach as the main access drive.
Muchalls Castle is perched on high ground with a commanding view of the North Sea less than 1⁄2 mile (800 metres) distant. It lies on the ancient Causey Mounth road linking Stonehaven to Aberdeen via the Portlethen Moss. Muchalls Castle has sweeping views to the south and east of a valley that was the northernmost point of the Roman army's advance into the Scottish highlands. The Romans built a major encampment Raedykes about three miles (five kilometres) south-east, which has yielded many interesting artefacts.
In nearby Stonehaven is Stonehaven Tolbooth, where Episcopal clergy were imprisoned for conducting services at the chapel on the Muchalls Castle estate. Other notable structures nearby that have historical links to Muchalls Castle are Fetteresso Castle, Dunnottar Castle, Crathes Castle and Monboddo House, the home of James Burnett, Lord Monboddo, the father of modern historical linguistics and a pre-evolutionary thinker.(Hobbs, 2002)
Kincardineshire or the County of Kincardine, also known as the Mearns, is an historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area on the coast of north-east Scotland. It is bounded by Aberdeenshire on the north, and by Angus on the south-west.
Crathes Castle is a castle, built in the 16th century, near Banchory in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is in the historic county of Kincardineshire. This harled castle was built by the Burnetts of Leys and was owned by the family for almost 400 years. The castle and its grounds are currently owned and managed by the National Trust for Scotland and are open to the public.
Craigievar Castle is a pinkish harled castle or fortified country house 6 miles (9.7 km) south of Alford, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It was the seat of Clan Sempill, and the Forbes family resided here for 350 years until 1963, when the property was given to the National Trust for Scotland by the 19th Lord Sempill.
A great hall is the main room of a royal palace, castle or a large manor house or hall house in the Middle Ages, and continued to be built in the country houses of the 16th and early 17th centuries, although by then the family used the great chamber for eating and relaxing. At that time the word "great" simply meant big and had not acquired its modern connotations of excellence. In the medieval period, the room would simply have been referred to as the "hall" unless the building also had a secondary hall, but the term "great hall" has been predominant for surviving rooms of this type for several centuries, to distinguish them from the different type of hall found in post-medieval houses. Great halls were found especially in France, England and Scotland, but similar rooms were also found in some other European countries.
Kincardine and Mearns is one of six area committees of the Aberdeenshire council area in Scotland. It has a population of 38,506. There are significant natural features in this district including rivers, forests, mountains and bogs.
Monboddo House is a historically famous mansion in The Mearns, Scotland. The structure was generally associated with the Burnett of Leys family. The property itself was owned by the Barclay family from the 13th century, at which time a tower house structure was erected. In 1593, the Laird was James Strachan, and thence it passed into the Irvine family and thereafter the Burnetts of Leys. There is a notable datestone adornment on the structure with the arms of Irvine impaling the arms of Douglas with initials R.E. and I.E. and dated 1635, representing the 17th-century couple who reconstructed the house, Robert Ervine and Ilizabeth Ervine. Monboddo House, with its crow-stepped gable design, is situated in the Howe of Mearns near the village of Auchenblae approximately nine miles (14 km) from the North Sea. The original landholding of the Monboddo Estate was approximately 200 square kilometres (77 sq mi).
Fetteresso Castle is a 14th-century tower house, rebuilt in 1761 as a Scottish Gothic style Palladian manor, with clear evidence of prehistoric use of the site. It is situated immediately west of the town of Stonehaven in Kincardineshire, slightly to the west of the A90 dual carriageway. Other notable historic fortified houses or castles in this region are Dunnottar Castle, Muchalls Castle, Fiddes Castle, Cowie Castle and Monboddo House.
The House of Burnett is a Lowland and Border Scottish family composed of several branches. The Chief of the Name and Arms of Burnett is James Comyn Amherst Burnett of Leys.
Portlethen Village is a settlement located to the east of Portlethen along the North Sea coast in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The village is also known as Old Portlethen. The skerry of Craigmaroinn is situated just off the coastline near Portlethen Village.
The Stonehaven Tolbooth is a late 16th-century stone building originally used as a courthouse and a prison in the town of Stonehaven, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Constructed of local Old Red Sandstone, the prison probably attained its greatest note, when three local Episcopalian clergymen were imprisoned for holding services for more than nine people. Lying midway along the old north quay of the Stonehaven Harbour, the present day Tolbooth serves as a local museum with a restaurant on the floor above the ground floor. It is a category A listed building.
Ury House is a large ruined mansion in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, built in the Elizabethan style in 1885 by Sir Alexander Baird, 1st Baronet. It is situated on the north-east coast about 1 mile (1.6 km) north of Stonehaven in the former county of Kincardineshire.
The Bridge of Dee or Brig o Dee is a road bridge over the River Dee in Aberdeen, Scotland. The term is also used for the surrounding area of the city. Dating from 1527, the bridge crosses at what was once the City of Aberdeen's southern boundary.
Sir Thomas Burnett, 1st Baronet of Leys was a feudal baron and leading Covenanter who had represented Kincardineshire in the Scottish Parliament in 1621.
The Causey Mounth is an ancient drovers' road over the coastal fringe of the Grampian Mountains in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. This route was developed as the main highway between Stonehaven and Aberdeen around the 12th century AD and it continued to function as the principal route connecting these two cities until the mid 20th century, when modern highway construction of the A90 road occurred in this area. There are extant paved and usable sections of this road over part of the alignment; however, many parts of the ancient route are no more than footpaths, and in some cases the road has vanished into agricultural fields. Constructed in the Middle Ages, the Causey Mounth was created as an elevated rock causeway to span many of the boggy areas such as the Portlethen Moss. A considerable portion of the alignment of the Causey Mounth is illustrated on the UK Ordnance Survey Map, although a large fraction of the route cannot be navigated by a conventional passenger vehicle.
Cookney is a hamlet in Aberdeenshire, Scotland in proximity to Netherley in the Mounth of the Grampian Highlands. The community is situated on a hilltop approximately 5 miles (8 km) northwest of Stonehaven, about 3 miles (5 km) northwest of the Bridge of Muchalls, and about 2 miles (3 km) west of Muchalls Castle. From Cookney a portion of the ancient route of the Causey Mounth is visible to the east near Whinward Farm, although the track is not truly recognizable from that distance. The Cookney Church is a prominent historic landmark of Cookney.
Saint Ternan's Church is an Episcopal church in the Diocese of Brechin, near Muchalls in Aberdeenshire, Scotland.
Doonie Point is a rocky headland situated approximately 1.5 kilometres south of the village of Muchalls in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The clifftop of Doonie Point yields views to the north of Grim Brigs, Brown Jewel and the coast of Newtonhill. To the south are views of the Castle Rock of Muchalls and the rugged North Sea coastline toward Stonehaven. Notable historic structures in the vicinity of Doonie Point are the Chapel of St. Mary and St. Nathalan, Muchalls Castle and the Mill of Muchalls. This site is a recognised rock climbing venue. Doonie Point is catalogued within the marine rescue activities for this part of the coast of northeast Scotland.
Cookney Parish Church, now business premises within a converted listed building, was a Christian place of worship in the village of Cookney, Aberdeenshire, Scotland.
The Hill of Muchalls is a coastal mountainous landform situated approximately 1.4 kilometres west of the Bridge of Muchalls in Aberdeenshire, Scotland within the Mounth Range of the Grampian Mountains. The peak elevation of this mountain is 120 metres above mean sea level. From Megray Hill there are expansive views to the North Sea facing east. The summit affords scenic vies of the historic harbour of Stonehaven.
Alexander Burnett, 12th Laird of Leys was a Scottish landowner.