Kellie Castle

Kellie Castle stands on farmland below Kellie Law in north-east Fife, four kilometres north of Pittenweem. A simple tower house was begun about 1360 by the Oliphants, who held the land for 250 years. In 1573 the fourth lord added an east tower as a jointure-house for his wife, and by 1606 the two were joined by a new range that created the T-plan still seen today. The castle is important for its early use of plaster ceilings in the London style, dated 1617, and for its part in royal history. James VI stayed here in 1617 after the Union of the Crowns and later made its owner an earl. Later owners included the Erskines, one of whom investigated a witch trial at Carnbee in 1666. Visitors walk through the linked towers and the 16th-century range. The library ceiling shows the 1617 date and the monogram of Thomas Erskine. The drawing room holds a restored Arts and Crafts panel painted by Phoebe Anna Traquair in 1897. The dining room displays a Flemish tapestry of Europa and the Bull, moved from the drawing room in the 1960s. Outside, a 17th-century walled garden grows old roses and fruit trees.