Field Visit
Date 25 June 1925
Event ID 1099096
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1099096
Fernie Castle.
The castle, was still inhabited, is a much altered 16th century house standing on low ground some 3 ½ miles west of Cupar. The western end of the present mansion is the original structure. It consists of an oblong main block of four storeys, running east and west, with a rectangular wing, in which is the main staircase, jutting out to the south in alignment with the west gable. A tower, circular below and corbelled out to a rectangular plan at the top storey, projects from the north-western angle. The masonry is harled rubble. The interior has been modernised, and most of the windows have been enlarged. On the north and east are relatively modern extensions.
HISTORICAL NOTE.-The family of Fernie held the lands as early at least as the 15th century, Walter Fernie of that ilk being dead before 1496 (1). But in March 1510 the King set to Florentinus Adinulty the lands of "Ferny" in feu-farm, part of the reddendo or return being the building of an "adequate mansion (sufficientem mansionem) of stone and lime, with hall, chamber, granary, byre, stable, dovecot, orchards, gardens, and bee-hives, with hedges and a plantation of oaks" (2). Nevertheless in 1517 we have on record Andrew Fernie of that ilk, heir to the late William Fernie of that ilk (3), and in 1527-8 the lands were erected into the barony of Wester-Ferny in favour of this Andrew Fernie (4). Early in the 17th century an Arnot of Newton married the heiress of Balfour of Burleigh and assumed the name of Balfour ;their youngest daughter married the last Arnot of Fernie, but, through failure of this line, the property came to the (Arnot) Balfours.
RCAHMS 1933, visited 25 June 1925.
(1) Reg. Sec. Sig., i, No. 73. (2) Reg. Mag. Sig., s.a., No. 3430. (3) Sheriff Court Book of Fife (S.H.S.), pp. 73-4. (4) Reg. Mag. Sig., s.a ., No.549.
