Culross Palace courtyard.Culross Palace from top of its garden, Culross and Firth of Forth in the distance, Aug 2018'Witch marks' above a fireplace in Culross Palace. These marks were thought to guard against witches coming down the chimney.
Culross Palace is a late 16th to early 17th century merchant's house in Culross, Fife, Scotland.
The palace, or "Great Lodging", was constructed between 1597 and 1611 by Sir George Bruce, the Laird of Carnock.[1] The house was mainly built in two campaigns. The south block in 1597 and the north building in 1611, the year when George Bruce was knighted. Bruce was a successful merchant who had a flourishing trade with other Forth ports, the Low Countries and Sweden. He had interests in coal mining, salt production, and shipping, sending William Stewart to Spain for wine, and is credited with sinking the world's first coal mine to extend under the sea.[2]
Many of the materials used in the construction of the palace were obtained during the course of Bruce's foreign trade. Baltic pine, red pantiles, and Dutch floor tiles and glass were all used. The exterior boasts the use of crow-stepped gables, including a statue of a veiled woman posing on the gable step. The palace features fine interiors, with decorative mural and ceiling painting, 17th and 18th-century furniture and a fine collection of Staffordshire and Scottish pottery.
Although it was never a royal residence, James VI visited the Palace in 1617.[3] The palace is now in the care of the National Trust for Scotland who have restored a model seventeenth-century garden, complete with raised beds, a covered walkway and crushed shell paths. The herbs, vegetables and fruit trees planted in the garden are types that were used in the early seventeenth century.
The renaissance paintwork was restored in 1932 for the National Trust and again in the 1990s by conservators from Historic Environment Scotland. On the second floor of the south block a ceiling painting includes 16 emblems adapted from Geffrey Whitney's A Choice of Emblemes (London, 1586). The north block has the fragmentary remains of a scene showing the Judgement of Solomon, and extensive original decorative painting.[4]
^Historic Environment Scotland. "The Palace, Culross, palace and gardens (SM5288)". Retrieved 15 March 2019.
^Calendar State Papers Scotland, 13:1 (Edinburgh, 1969), pp. 345-7: Donald Adamson, 'A Coal Mine in the Sea: Culross and the Moat Pit', Scottish Archaeological Journal, 30:2 (October 2008), pp. 161-199.
^John Nichols, The Progresses, Processions, and Magnificent Festivities, of King James the First, vol. 3 (London, 1828), pp. 326-7.
^Michael Bath, Renaissance Decorative Painting in Scotland (NMS: Edinburgh, 2003), pp. 249-53: Michael Bath, Emblems in Scotland (Brill, 2018), pp. 78. 167-8, 212-221.
CulrossPalace is a late 16th to early 17th century merchant's house in Culross, Fife, Scotland. The palace, or "Great Lodging", was constructed between...
Culross (/ˈkurəs/) (Scottish Gaelic: Cuileann Ros, 'holly point or promontory') is a village and former royal burgh, and parish, in Fife, Scotland. According...
built the large mansion known as Culross House or Abbey House (now reduced in size) and George built CulrossPalace. Bruce was an innovator in coal mining...
full history of Scottish gardening ranging from the late medieval at CulrossPalace, through the 18th-century picturesque at Culzean Castle and Victorian...
are a number of variations on the basic design. One such structure is CulrossPalace built in 1597 which features a veiled woman on the crow steps. Roofs...
George Bruce of Carnock (c. 1550–1625), a Scottish merchant who built CulrossPalace, and a niece of Edward Bruce, 1st Lord Kinloss (1548–1611). He commanded...
original design of the building is believed to have been inspired by CulrossPalace in Culross. Situated at the corner of the Crossgate, the Category C listed...
churches, are painted on the thin lining boards of wooden barrel vaults. CulrossPalace, built by Sir George Bruce of Carnock, has a variety of painted interiors...
"Dunbar to Edinburgh". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 1 February 2022. "Leith to Culross". bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 1 February 2022. "Stirling to East Neuk". bbc.co...
construction at Linlithgow. James IV spent Easter 1490 at the palace, visited the town of Culross, and returned on 18 April to play dice with Archibald Douglas...
Falkland Palace Falkland Royal palace (excluding South Range and stables) SM854 Newark castle St Monance Ruined castle and dovecote SM866 CulrossPalace Culross...
history CulrossPalaceCulross Fife Kingdom of Fife Historic house Operated by the National Trust for Scotland, 16th- to 17th-century furnished palace, study...
Viscount Falmouth, the Viscount Hardinge and the Viscount Colville of Culross, respectively. An exception exists for viscounts in the peerage of Scotland...
"Culross, Sandhaven, CulrossPalace Including Courtyard Walls, Garden Walls And Bessie Bar Well: Listed Building Report". Historic Scotland. "Culross,...
Prior to the 1890s Perthshire's boundaries were irregular: the parishes of Culross and Tulliallan formed an exclave some miles away from the rest of the county...
Balmerino Abbey Falkland Palace, Garden & Old Burgh Hill of Tarvit Mansionhouse & Garden Kellie Castle & Garden The Royal Burgh of Culross Black Hill Cameronians'...
has been taken by the Scottish judge Thomas Cooper, 1st Lord Cooper of Culross. When he decided the 1953 case of MacCormick v. Lord Advocate as Lord President...
Lord-in-Waiting to the Prince of Wales The Lord and Lady Colville of Culross, Chamberlain to the Princess of Wales, and his wife The Archbishop of Canterbury...
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