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Field Visit
Date 9 June 1925
Event ID 1099082
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1099082
Lordscairnie Castle.
This has been a tower house, of the late 15th or early 16th century, standing within a barmkin on a slight eminence in an open valley 2 ½ miles north-west of Cupar. It is now very dilapidated [SC 1108521]. The enclosure has been entered from the northeast, at a point indicated by the remains of a circular tower, probably one of two set on either side of the gate. The upper part of this tower is ruinous, but the lower part contains a small vaulted chamber, pierced by three gun-loops covering the approach. At one side is the beginning of the barmkin wall, and at the other is one jamb of the gate, which has evidently had a semi-circular head, heavily moulded. Gate and tower may be rather later than the main structure.
The house is L-shaped on plan. The main block lies east and west, and the wing projects from the north-western angle to contain the staircase. The masonry is a boulder rubble with freestone dressings. The southern angles have been surmounted by open rounds, of which part of the corbelling remains. There have been four storeys below the wall-head, the lowest of them vaulted. Windows are few in number and are chamfered at jamb and lintel. The entrance, situated at the stair-foot, is in ruins; it has been covered by a machicolation, as is indicated by two triple-membered corbels. The stair has been continuous.
The ground-floor storey has been subdivided by a parpen-wall into two cellars, which are lit from north and south. The first floor seems to have been a single chamber, the Hall, a large room 41 by 21 feet, adequately lit from north, south and west, with seats in the embrasures of the windows. Traces of the fireplace are seen in the south wall, and in each wall is an aumbry. The second and third floors have each apparently been subdivided into two chambers and otherwise only differ from the Hall in having mural chambers, now inaccessible but possibly garderobes.
HISTORICAL N OTE. - "Lordscairnie", was so called to distinguish it from other portions of the same district, such as Hillcairnie, Myrecairnie, &c. In 1355 David de Lindsay, lord of Crawford, made a grant to the church of the monastery of Lindores from his land of "Carny" (1). Thereafter Lordscairnie continued in possession of the Lindsays, afterwards Earls of Crawford (2). The tower is usually said to have been erected by "Earl Beardie," fourth Earl of Crawford, in the first half of the 15th century, but this period seems rather too early
RCAHMS 1933, visited 9 June 1925.
(1) Reg. Mag. Sig., i, No. 190. (2) Stat. Acct., viii, p. 584.
