Ravenscraig Castle

Ravenscraig Castle stands on a narrow rocky promontory jutting into the Firth of Forth near Kirkcaldy in Fife. Built around 1460, it is one of Scotland’s earliest castles designed to resist cannon fire. The castle has two thick-walled D-plan towers and a deep rock-cut ditch for defence. A bridge provides the only landward access across the ditch. The cliffs on three sides drop steeply to the sea, making the site naturally strong. The castle was begun by Mary of Guelders as a memorial to her husband, King James II, who died at the Siege of Roxburgh. Her son James III later gave it to William Sinclair, Earl of Orkney, whose family completed the artillery defences. In 1540 James V and Mary of Guise stopped at Ravenscraig on their way to Falkland Palace. The castle was damaged during Cromwell’s invasion in the 1650s and later used as an ammunition store in the First World War. Visitors walk across the bridge into the central block where the main gate and guard room remain. Vaulted cellars support the artillery platform above, which has inverted keyhole gun holes facing inland. The west tower rises four storeys with a vaulted cellar and hall above, while the east tower has three storeys and a well inside its cliff-set base. Both towers have windowless landward walls, but windows with stone seats face the sea. The rocky promontory offers views across the Firth of Forth to Edinburgh on clear days.