Falkland Palace, in Falkland, Fife, Scotland, is a royal palace of the Scottish kings. It was one of the favourite places of Mary, Queen of Scots, who took refuge there from political and religious turmoil of her times.
Today it is under the stewardship of Ninian Stuart, who delegates most of his duties to the National Trust for Scotland. The Chapel Royal in the Palace is dedicated to Thomas the Apostle.Register of the Privy Seal of Scotland, vol. 5:2 (Edinburgh, 1957), p. 61 no. 2676: VIPA Falkland Palace It is open to the public and reserved for Catholic worship.
History Early years
In the late 12th century, a royal hunting lodge was located on this site. The lodge was expanded in the 13th century to operate as a castle, owned by the Earls of Fife of the noted Clan MacDuff. The castle was built here because the site is on a slight hill that could be defended. The surrounding land eventually were developed as the Palace gardens.
To the north, between the royal stable and the River Eden, was a great oak wood. Its many groves merged into the surrounding parkland. Timber was occasionally cut in the forest for royal ships of war.
The castle would have been surrounded by meadows, fields, orchards, glades and Falkland Park, which was a managed forest surrounded by a pale, a ditch with a fence on top of it. The pale would have been used to keep game inside the park reserved for hunting by the royal family and its courtiers. A park keeper maintained the Pale. In 1469 the keeper Bannatyne was docked wages for failing to keep it repaired.John Gilbert, Hunting and Hunting Reserves in Medieval Scotland (John Donald, 1979), pp. 219, 235.
In 1371 Isabella MacDuff, Countess of Fife acknowledged Robert Stewart, Earl of Menteith, son of Robert II, as her heir. She made him keeper of the castle and forest of Falkland. In 1402 Stewart, by then Duke of Albany, imprisoned his nephew and rival David Stewart, Duke of Rothesay, at Falkland; he was the eldest son of Robert III. The incarcerated Duke eventually died from neglect and starvation.George Burnett, Exchequer Rolls of Scotland, vol. 3 (Edinburgh, 1880), pp. lxxxix-xcii. According to a chronicle, the starving Duke of Rothesay had eaten his own hands.George Neilson, "Missing Section of 'The Dethe of the Kynge of Scotis' Recovered", Scottish Historical Review, 2 (Glasgow, 1905), p. 98.
Albany was exonerated from blame by the Parliament of Scotland, but suspicions of foul play persisted. These suspicions were carried against Rothesay's younger brother, the future King James I. These events eventually led to the downfall of the Albany Stewarts.
After ordering the execution of Albany's son Murdoch in 1424, James I took possession of Falkland for the crown.Charles Mackie, The Castles, Palaces, and Prisons of Mary Queen of Scots (London, 1853), p. 272. Falkland became a popular retreat with all the Stewart monarchs and queens consort. They practised falconry there and used the vast surrounding forests for hawking. Red deer and fallow deer were kept in the park for hunting, some brought from the Torwood Forest near Stirling.John Gilbert, Hunting in Medieval Scotland (John Donald, 1979), pp. 219-20.
Mary of Guelders James II of Scotland granted Falkland to his queen consort Mary of Guelders, and the palace or castle became a favourite residence.Annie I. Dunlop, The Life and Times of James Kennedy, Bishop of St. Andrews (Oliver & Boyd, 1950), p. 385. The stables and other buildings in the close were repaired and a new kitchen was built for the visits of the royal couple in 1453. Linseed, cabbage seed, onion, leek, and other seeds were bought for the garden.Exchequer Rolls, 5 (Edinburgh, 1882), pp. 304, 502, 538, 687
As a widow, Mary of Guelders employed her stewards Henry Kinghorn and William Blair to supervise improvements at Falkland Palace in 1461–2. The works included a stairway from the queen's chamber to the pleasance, new stables, a coal shed, repairs and an extension to the counting house, and a smith-made andirons or firedogs for the queen's bedchamber and the fire grate of the great hall. The royal carpenter was Andrew Lesouris.Anne Hargreaves, 'Falkland Palace', The Oxford Companion to British History (Oxford, 2015), p. 353: David Ditchburn, Scotland and Europe: Religion, culture and commerce (Tuckwell, 2001), p. 132: John G. Dunbar, Scottish Royal Palaces (Tuckwell: East Linton, 1999), pp. 21-22: : William Mackay Mackenzie, The Medieval Castle in Scotland (London, 1927), p. 121: George Burnett, Exchequer Rolls of Scotland, vol. 7 (Edinburgh, 1884), pp. 78-9, 106. New structures included a "galry" with two chambers, apparently the earliest use of the French-derived term "gallery" in Britain.Howard Colvin, 'Royal Gardens in Medieval England', Elisabeth B. MacDougall, Medieval Gardens (Dumbarton Oaks, 1986), p. 17; The History of the King's Works: 1485-1660, 2 (London: HMSO, 1982), p. 20.
Works in the grounds included the construction of two ponds in the hay yard. A new lawn was laid near the queen's chamber, and a doorway was made for her to access the garden.Marilyn Brown, Scotland's Lost Gardens (RCAHMS, Edinburgh, 2012), p. 70: Scott Cooper, 'Ornamental Structures in the medieval gardens of Scotland', PSAS, 129 (1999), pp. 819-820 Such access was popular in this period; in other countries, Margaret of Anjou at Greenwich Palace and Isabella of Portugal at Bruges had access from their lodgings to the gardens.Rachel M. Delman, 'Mary of Guelders and the Architecture of Queenship in Fifteenth-Century Scotland', Scottish Historical Review, 102:2 (2023), pp. 211–231. Eleanor of Naples built new lodgings and a terrace garden at Castello Estense in Ferrara.I Racconti del Castello: The Castle Talks (Ferrara, 2006), pp. 94–96.
At Linlithgow Palace, a door leads out to the garden and pele at the foot of what may have been the queen consort's tower under the oriel windows of the royal chambers.Charles McKean, 'Gender Differentiation in Scottish Royal Palaces', Monique Chatenet & Krista De Jonge, Le prince, la princesse et leurs logis (Paris, 2014), p. 92: John G. Dunbar, Scottish Royal Palaces (Tuckwell, 1999), p. 138. Mary of Guelders is said to have had a garden walk made between two oak trees, known as "Queen's Quarrels", a name suggestive of the practice of archery, a "quarrel" being a name for a crossbow bolt. Another walk was called the "Gilderland".Sheila Mackay, Early Scottish Gardens: A Writer's Odyssey (Edinburgh, 2001), p. 60: Rosalind K. Marshall, Mary of Guise (Collins, 1977), p. 62. The hay meadow of Falkland is regularly mentioned in the royal accounts, as are onions, because the palace gardener's pay was based on four barrels of onions.Exchequer Rolls, 13 (Edinburgh, 1891), p. 3.
James III and Margaret of Denmark came to Falkland in September 1473.Thomas Dickson, Accounts of the Treasurer, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1877), p. 14. The court of the Exchequer met at Falkland annually to complete the accounts of the jointure lands of James's mother, Mary of Guelders.Athol Murray, 'The Procedure of the Scottish Exchequer in the Early Sixteenth Century', Scottish Historical Review, 40:130 part 2 (October 1961), p. 93. She may have intended to make Falkland Palace her residence and spiritual retreat in widowhood.Rachel M. Delman, 'Mary of Guelders and the Architecture of Queenship in Fifteenth-Century Scotland', Scottish Historical Review, 102:2 (2023).
James IV at Falkland Between 1497 and 1541 James IV and James V transformed the old castle and royal lodgings into a beautiful renaissance-style royal palace. James enjoyed imported oranges at Falkland in April 1497 and gave a tip to the gardener and workmen building the dyke around the park.Thomas Dickson, Accounts of the Treasurer, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1877), pp. 331-2. Accounts mention Perkin Warbeck, his servants and his horses, at Falkland in 1496.James Gairdner, Letters and papers illustrative of the reigns of Richard III and Henry VII, 2 (London, 1861), p. 331. In May 1501, James IV hired two stonemasons from Dundee to work at the palace, and an hourglass was bought for time-keeping. On 13 December 1501 he was entertained at Falkland by the female minstrel Quhissilgibboun, and in September 1504 by fiddlers, lutenists, and an African drummer known as the "More taubronar". A man from Pittenweem brought a live seal to the castle on 25 September 1502 and James IV gave him 14 shillings in reward.James Balfour Paul, Accounts of the Treasurer, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1900), pp. 88, 128, 302, 342, 459.
The queen consort, Margaret Tudor, came to Falkland in August 1509. A new chapel (perhaps on the site of the present south quarter) was roofed in 1512 by Alexander and John Slater, and masons worked on the garden wall. William Thome completed the walls of the great hall.Aeneas James George Mackay, Exchequer Rolls, 1508–1513, vol. 13 (Edinburgh, 1891), xcvi, 289, 430, 505. James IV was entertained at Falkland by the "Wild Lady", who received £10 for her appearances in 1513.Exchequer Rolls, vol. 13 (Edinburgh, 1891), xcvii, 506.
James IV brought deer-nets from Kinneil House in November 1503. Andrew Matheson built a fold for deer in November 1505.Accounts of the Treasurer: 1500-1504, vol. 2 (Edinburgh, 1900), pp. 407-8, 425. A trap was made to "slay foxes in the park of Falkland".John Gilbert, Hunting in Medieval Scotland (John Donald, 1979), p. 220: Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland: 1506-1507, vol. 3 (Edinburgh, 1901), p. 171. For a time in 1507 the horse of the French herald Montjoie, Gilbert Chauveau, was kept in the palace stables.George Burnet, Exchequer Rolls of Scotland, 1502-1507, vol. 12 (Edinburgh, 1889) p. 523 In May 1508 James IV and John Methven stalked deer in the park with a firearm called a culverin.John Gilbert, Hunting in Medieval Scotland (John Donald, 1979), p. 57:Accounts of the Treasurer, vol. 4 (Edinburgh, 1902), p. 115. Later, wild boar, imported from France, were kept in the Park, within a fence made by the Laird of Fernie.Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland, vol. 7 (Edinburgh 1907), pp. 461, 472: Exchequer Rolls, 18 (Edinburgh, 1898), 44. Dairy and beef cattle were kept to support the castle population.
James V and Mary of Guise The teenage James V was detained at Falkland Palace by the Earl of Angus and, according to Robert Lindsay of Pitscottie, escaped to Stirling Castle which was held by his mother Margaret Tudor. He had announced an early morning deer hunt in the park, but escaped by horse in the middle of the night dressed as a stable hand.Aeneas Mackay, Historie and Cronicles of Scotland, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1899), pp. 324-6 Pitscottie cites a local landowner Andrew Fernie as one of his sources, and Fernie probably provided this story.Ken Emond, The Minority of James V (Edinburgh: John Donald, 2019), p. 272.
To address the poor state of the garden and park, James V appointed a new Captain and Keeper, William Barclay, Master of Rhynd, in March 1527.Register of the Great Seal: 1513–1546 (Edinburgh, 1883), no. 558. The Queen's Chamber was hung with tapestry for Margaret Tudor in September 1534.James Balfour Paul, Accounts of the Treasurer: 1531-1538, vol. 6 (Edinburgh, 1905), p. 215. James V extended his father's buildings in French renaissance style from 1537. He arranged to build a Royal Tennis Court and bowling alley in the garden in 1541.Henry Paton, Accounts of the Masters of Work, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1957), pp. 270, 275, 279-81. The tennis court was called a caichpule in Scots and the game was known in French as jeu de paume.John M. Gilbert, Elite Hunting Culture and Mary, Queen of Scots (Boydell, 2024), pp. 104, 192. Mary was said to have scandalised the people of Scotland by wearing men's breeches to play the game.