Falkland Palace Falkland, Scotland
Listed Building Data
Falkland Palace has been designated a scheduled monument in Scotland with the following information. Please note that not all available data may be shown here, minor errors and/or formatting may have occurred during transcription, and some information may have become outdated since listing.
- Historic Scotland ID
- 341009 (entity ID)
- Building ID
- 8798
- Canmore ID
- 29787
- Category
- A
- Name
- Falkland Palace
- Parish
- Falkland
- County
- Fife
- Easting
- 325345
- Northing
- 707454
- Date Listed
- 1 February 1972
Listed Building Description
Text courtesy of Historic England. © Crown Copyright, reprinted under the Open Government License.
3-sided quadrangular structure comprising orginally:- NORTH QUARTER:- Mid 15th century: contained great hall, evidently similar in plan form to hall at Stirling. Renovated from 1502, burnt 1654; only foundations remain. EAST QUARTER:- Circa 1500-12, 3-storey with vaulted ground floor; courtyard facade recast from 1537, John Merlioun, original rubble work left exposed, 6-bay treatment with Corinthian columned buttresses and roundels to match south range work by Nicholas Roy and Moses Martin; 'dovecot' circular stair tower at NE. Vaulted ground floor and courtyard facade less dormerheads survive intact, remainder much ruined. CROSS HOUSE:- Circa 1500-12, rectangular tower at centre east front of above, rectangular plan with circular stair turret at NE; rebuilt from 1st floor level upwards 1890s except for stair turret which had largely survived: decoration of King James V room, W Schomberg Scott and David McClure. SOUTH QUARTER:- Originally Circa 1501-12. 3-storey and attic (tall 2nd floor containing chapel), vaulted ground floor, northern lean-to corridor. Completely refaced in ashlar 1537-41; Thomas French and James Black 1538-9, 6-bay late gothic south front, niched buttresses with statuary by Peter Flemishman, square-headed 2-light windows 2nd floor, rich corbelled and crenellated parapet. Nicholas Roy and Moses Martin 1540-41, north courtyard facade, corinthian columned buttresses and roundels with busts, mullioned and transomed 2nd floor windows, segmentally pedimented dormers, details of Loire School; chapel ceiling with painted decoration 1633; original wooden screen, Royal Pew reconstructed on model of that at Scone incorporating fragments of original Falkland one. Gate House (Foirentre and tower, Captain's Chambers). John Brownhill and Henry Bawte completed 1539-41 evidently incorporating earlier work. 3-storey with crenellated parapet and cap house, pend entry flanked on south by round towers; corridor on north side left unbuilt. Ashlar except at site of corridor. Panel embellishments added in 1893-6 restoration. RESTORATIONS: considerably and in part altered c 1840, presumably under supervision of William Burn, for O Tyndall Bruce; Burn's alterations largely removed, extensive restorations and repairs inside and out, John Kinross from 1893 onwards, chiefly 1893-6; elaborate painted decoration based on the paintings of David Scott by Thomas Bonnar 1895-6, interior fittings from Bute workshops at Cardiff.
Listed Building Statement of Special Interest
Text courtesy of Historic Environment Scotland. © Crown Copyright, reprinted under the Open Government License.
Items 1-8 and 10-13 and 16B group with items 1-104 in Falkland Burgh. SCHEDULED MONUMENT. The present palace was begun by James II. In the 16th century the Bethunes of Creich became hereditary keepers, the keepership passing by marriage to David Viscount Murray of Stormont who built a house on the site of the original castle early in the 17th century, long ago demolished; the keepership passed from the Murrays to the Earl of Atholl during the Commonwealth; and thence to the Dukes of Atholl; acquired 1787 by Skene of Pitlour, and thence by marriage to the Moncrieffs of the Myres; in 1820 General George Moncrieff disposed of it to Professor John Bruce whose niece brought it to O Tyndall Bruce who repaired the much neglected south quarter and gatehouse in 1840; acquired from the Bruces 1887 by the 3rd Marquess of Bute: to Lord Ninian Crichton Stuart 1900, to Major Michael Crichton Stuart 1915; National Trust Deputy Keeper 1952.
Listed Building References
Text courtesy of Historic Environment Scotland. © Crown Copyright, reprinted under the Open Government License.
Inv 238; Sir Iain Moncrieffe, Royal Palace of Falkland, Billings, Baronial and Ecclesiastical Antiquities v II; C & D Arch v I p 501; Mark Girouard in Country life, August 27, September 3 1959; J S Richardson, the Mediaeval Stone Carver in Scotland; H M Paton, accounts of the Masters of Work, 1529-1615: gives details of craftsmen employed under Sir James Hamilton of Finnart 1537-40; and under John Scryingeour of the Myres 1540-2: and subsequent repairs in the reign of James VI. William Turnbull, Andrew Matheson, William Thome and Andrew Wright were responsible for the previous chapel block in 1501-12, but it does not seem absolutely clear which part of the building as it now stands is referred to.
