Field Visit
Date 22 July 1927
Event ID 1099205
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1099205
Newark Castle.
Almost half a mile to the south-west of St. Monans a small promontory runs out into the sea. Its western side, which is actually overhanging, stands some 30 feet above the shore, though dipping at one place to about half that height. The main buildings of the castle stand on the summit of the promontory and are set on the eastern side and across the southern end, while on the west is a cliff on which are remnants of walling, the whole enclosing a small courtyard. Other buildings, now represented merely by fragments of vaulted cellars, lay at a lower level towards the north-west, access between the two parts being maintained by a newel-stair, still traceable. At the lower level there was probably a water-gate. The upper buildings, less fragmentary but entirely ruinous, show four main periods of construction. The earliest work is to be found in the three most southerly of the vaulted cellars in the eastern range. These have undergone a certain amount of alteration and afford no definite indication of date. In the second period, about the early 16th century, the block was extended northward and terminated at the north-east angle in a circular tower, with an entrance gate, facing north, in its western side. Only on the ground floor, however, is it possible to identify any work of this period apart from the tower, since in the third period, which can be tentatively described as the later 16th century, a new house, extending northward from the southern cellars to the wall of the tower and having a stair-tower towards the courtyard, was built on the old second-period ground floor. Late in the 16th century the cellarage was altered, while it is apparently to this later period that the buildings at the southern end of the courtyard, as well as those on the lower level, ought to be assigned. In the fourth period, which can be set down as the later 17th century, a storey was added to the16th-century house, and the voids, wall-head, and gables were embellished with contemporary moulded work. An upper storey was also added to the tower, and the courtyard was divided by a cross wall which runs northward along the western cliff to meet the main outer wall.
The entrance has been in the screen wall set astride the neck of the promontory on the north. A horizontal gun-loop exists in the surviving east side and there are similar gun-loops spread over the three lower floors of the round tower, which is five storeys in height. The 17th-century top storey is offset and has a moulded eaves-course. The 16th-century house immediately behind the tower was originally three storeys high, and the 17th-century heightening is clearly indicated on the north gable, which was then given its present curvilinear finish. The ground floor was the kitchen, a vaulted chamber with a fine arched fireplace in the north gable lit by two side windows. An arched recess in the west wall may have been for a bucket. The original entrance to this room is obscured by a 17th-century doorpiece at the foot of a turnpike, which gave access to the floors above. These upper floors are now fragmentary, but they contain evidence of late 17th-century alterations.
DOVECOT. - A circular dovecot of the 16th century stands on the cliff 100 yards east of the castle. It measures 14 ½ feet in diameter within walls 3 feet 8 inches in thickness. There have been one string-course and one offset course. The nests have been partly removed. The stone roof is apparently of later date.
HISTORICAL NOTE. - During the 16th century these lands belonged to the Sandilands of Cruivie (cf. No. 407), having been acquired, along with Cruivie, by the marriage of a Sandilands of Calder with the heiress of their predecessors, the Kinlochs. In 1545 the superior, the Prior of Pittenweem, granted to James Sandilands of Cruivie "certain acres belonging to our manor, commonly called the Newark of St. Monans” (1). The name was apparently derived from the "new-wark" or new building of the castle in its second period, as defined in the description. In 1645 Sir James Sandilands of St. Monans, afterwards Lord Abercrombie, was served heir to his grandfather in these lands "with the' tower and fortalice of St. Monance called the New-wark" (2). Four years later the property was purchased by General Sir David Leslie (3), who in 1661 was created Lord Newark and died in 1682
RCAHMS 1933, visited 22 July 1927
(1) Wood's East Neuk of Fife, p. 234. (2) Inquis. Spec., Fife, No. 693. (3) Diary of John Lamont of Newton (Maitland Club), p. 11.
