A castle legacy

I have today just returned from a visit to Culross, in the Kingdom of Fife, the purpose of which was to inspect Dunimarle, a Victorian gothic mansion perched on a hill overlooking the estuary of the River Forth. Within the grounds are the remains of MacDuff's Castle, where the long ago Thane of Fife's wife, of William Shakespeare's Scottish play, allegedly met her unhappy end with her children. More recently, the exteriors have provided the backdrop for the film The Little Vampire.

Castlehill, a small 18th century mansion house, was built here in the 18th century to exploit the site's picturesque qualities.

Shortly afterwards, it was acquired and re-modelled by Magdalene Sharpe Erskine, sister and heiress to Sir John Drummond of Torrie. By all accounts a lady of independent mind, Magdalene's marriage in her 50s to Admiral Kilpatrick Sharpe, lasted only three days, after which a permanent separation was arranged.

Perhaps it is a writer's instinct, but I am always intrigued by old houses and the dramas that enfolded within their walls. The ghosts of fiction come to mind – Thornfield Hall in Jane Eyre, Brideshead in Brideshead Revisited, Manderley in Rebecca, and the House of Shaws in Kidnapped. The story of Magdalene Sharpe Erskine is equally poignant.

With the collapse of her brief marriage, she turned her attentions wholeheartedly to her estate. She changed its name to Dunimarle, which means ‘castle by the sea,' and commissioned the architects Robert and Richard Dicks...

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• By : Roddy Martine
• In : Roddy Martine's World
• Issue : 38
• Page : 7
• Words : 733