Chapel and Family Vaults, Donibristle House

Donibristle House once stood on the Firth of Forth coast in Fife. Only its two wings remain today, protected as category A listed buildings inside the modern town of Dalgety Bay. The house began as a residence for James Stewart, Commendator of Inchcolm Abbey, around 1540. In 1592 George Gordon, Marquess of Huntly, attacked and burned the house, killing James Stewart, 2nd Earl of Moray. The ballad ‘The Bonnie Earl O’ Moray’ recalls this event. The second house was rebuilt between 1632 and 1653 by the 4th Earl of Moray and his wife Margaret Home. Their cabinet room held curiosities such as a miniature bowling game, a parrot painting, a loadstone and a telescope bought in London in 1634. Nearby stood a fountain topped by a bronze Mercury on a turtle, described by Thomas Kirk in 1677. The library included works by calligrapher Esther Inglis and a copy of L’Astrée. The third house was built around 1700 with three-storey wings designed by Alexander McGill. McGill also designed the mortuary chapel for the Earls of Moray, completed in 1731 and still standing. In the 18th century Thomas White landscaped the park, and James Gillespie Graham drew plans for 19th-century remodelling. After the main block burned in 1858, the surviving wings were joined by a subterranean passage and an early 18th-century wrought-iron screen, said to be the finest in Scotland.