Fordell Castle
The castle is a fortified house (fortalice) designed on a Z-plan running east–west, with square towers at the north-west and south-east corners, each containing a circular staircase.
[2][3] "Externally, Fordell remains pretty much as it was when first built, a simply treated, dignified dwelling, on which corbelled turetts and projections, happily grouped, relieve the plane wall-surfaces below.
The paneled ceiling has star and half moon mouldings, reflecting motifs in the Henderson coat of arms.
At gallery level is the main private apartment, which has a paneled ceiling with star and half moon moulding.
Above the main stair head is a chamber known as Queen Mary's Room; it is vaulted and paneled, and has a stone fireplace.
It "represents a winged four-footed monster, with open mouth and defiant attitude, designed and executed with great spirit.
[citation needed] In 1510–1512, James (M. Jacobo) Henrysoun (Henderson),[16] burgess of Edinburgh, and his wife, Elene (née Baty), redeemed from mortgage his inherited fractional portion of the Fordell estate and purchased fractional parts of the lands of Fordell (Fordalis) from at least five others.
[18] In the mid-16th century, Mary, Queen of Scots, is said to have stayed here when Marion Scott, one of her ladies-in-waiting, married George Henderson, the laird.
[21] The masons Robert Peris, James Orrok, and others had made good progress building a "house of great quantity" when they were stopped on 5 June 1567 by William Spittal of Luquhat, who claimed a title to the lands of Fordell.
[31] During the same period, Fordell Castle was rarely occupied; the main hall is said to have been converted into a stable for a time.
[33][5] In 1953, John Hampden Mercer-Henderson, 8th Earl of Buckinghamshire, divided the nearly 2,000 acres (810 ha) estate, selling the land to the west of Fordel Burn.
[27] The castle was restored and used as a private residence by Sir Nicholas and his wife Lady Sam Fairbairn.
[37][38] Following his death in 1995, Nicholas Fairbairn was laid to rest in the crypt below the Chapel of St Theriot on the castle grounds.
[40] About 1999, the property was purchased by Andrew Berry, a businessman who made extensive, high-quality restorations of the castle, chapel, and grounds.
[62] The entrance to the Castle passes over a bridge, past a weir that formerly held back the waters of the Fordell Burn, and forming a lake that has now all but silted up.
An irregularly-shaped block of sandstone in a field to the west of the carriage drive is said to have been erected following the 1317 victory of the Scottish, led by William Sinclair, Bishop of Dunkeld, against an English invasion.
[65] The Castle, garden, and Chapel sit within a roughly trapezoidal area enclosed by a rubble barmkin wall, modified on the east side in the 19th century with castellations and a bastion.
It was built on the site of an earlier chapel, dedicated to Saint Therotus, Theoretus or Theriot, an obscure 8th century cleric,[73] who is described by one source as "splendidly apocryphal";[74] it was first mentioned in 1510 but may have been considerably older.
[citation needed] The remains of one of Scotland's oldest railways runs 400 metres (1,300 ft) to the east of the Castle.
The original wooden rails are gone, although the embankments, cuttings, and stone bridges remain, and carriages and equipment can be viewed in the Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh.
