Cambo Estate lies close to the village of

Kingsbarns Kingsbarns is a village and parish in Scotland lies near the eastern coast of Fife, in an area known as the East Neuk, southeast of St Andrews and north of Crail. The name derives from the area being the location of the barns used to store gr ...

in north-east

Fife Fife ( , ; ; ) is a council areas of Scotland, council area and lieutenancy areas of Scotland, lieutenancy area in Scotland. A peninsula, it is bordered by the Firth of Tay to the north, the North Sea to the east, the Firth of Forth to the s ...

Scotland Scotland is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It contains nearly one-third of the United Kingdom's land area, consisting of the northern part of the island of Great Britain and more than 790 adjac ...

. It is within the

East Neuk The East Neuk () or East Neuk of Fife is an area of the coast of Fife, Scotland. "Neuk" is the Scots language, Scots word for nook or corner, and the East Neuk is generally accepted to comprise the fishing villages of the most northerly part o ...

, south-east of

St Andrews St Andrews (; ; , pronounced ʰʲɪʎˈrˠiː.ɪɲ is a town on the east coast of Fife in Scotland, southeast of Dundee and northeast of Edinburgh. St Andrews had a recorded population of 16,800 , making it Fife's fourth-largest settleme ...

. At the heart of the estate lies the 19th-century Cambo House, the home of Sir Peter Erskine, Bt and Lady Catherine Erskine. The gardens of Cambo are open to the public, and include the

walled garden A walled garden is a garden enclosed by high walls, especially when this is done for horticultural rather than security purposes, although originally all gardens may have been enclosed for protection from animal or human intruders. In temperate c ...

and seasonal

snowdrop ''Galanthus'' (from Ancient Greek , (, "milk") + (, "flower")), or snowdrop, is a small genus of approximately 20 species of bulbous perennial herbaceous plants in the family (biology), family Amaryllidaceae. The plants have two linear leav ...

gardens. Elsewhere on the estate is the

Kingsbarns Golf Links Kingsbarns Golf Links is a seaside Scottish links golf course along 1.8 miles of shoreline near St Andrews, Scotland. It opened in 2000 and has been rated as one of the best courses in Scotland. It has also been ranked as one of the top 100 cou ...

golf course, which co-hosts the

Alfred Dunhill Links Championship The Alfred Dunhill Links Championship is a golf tournament on the European Tour. It is played in September or October, on three different links courses, centered on the "home of golf", St Andrews in Fife, Scotland. The tournament is a pro-am, ...

every year.

History

The estate of Cambo was granted to Robert de Newenham by a charter of King William the Lion. His descendants took the name "de Cambhou", and had settled in Fife by the early 14th century. Sir John de Cambhou fought at the

Battle of Methven The Battle of Methven took place at Methven, Scotland on 19 June 1306, during the Wars of Scottish Independence. The battlefield was researched to be included in the Inventory of Historic Battlefields in Scotland and protected by Historic Sco ...

(1306), but was captured by the English and hanged at

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area ...

. In 1599 the estate was granted to Thomas Myretoun. In 1668, Sir Charles Erskine, Bt (d. 1677), the

Lord Lyon King of Arms The Right Honourable the Lord Lyon King of Arms, the head of Lyon Court, is the most junior of the Great Officer of State, Great Officers of State in Scotland and is the Scotland, Scottish official with responsibility for regulating heraldry i ...

and brother of the 3rd Earl of Kellie, purchased the property from the creditors of Patrick Merton. The estate passed through the Erskine family to the 5th

Earl of Kellie The title Earl of Kellie or Kelly is a title in the Peerage of Scotland, created in 1619 for Sir Thomas Erskine, who was Captain of the Guard and Groom of the Stool for James VI. It is named after Barony of Kellie in Fife, Scotland. Since 1875, ...

, who forfeited his lands after supporting the

Jacobite rising of 1745 The Jacobite rising of 1745 was an attempt by Charles Edward Stuart to regain the Monarchy of Great Britain, British throne for his father, James Francis Edward Stuart. It took place during the War of the Austrian Succession, when the bulk of t ...

. In 1759 Cambo was sold to the

Charteris Charteris is a Scottish surname. Notable people with the surname include: * Archibald Charteris (1835–1908), Scottish theologian, founder of ''Life and Work'' magazine * Ann Fleming, (1913–1981), British socialite, wife of author Ian Fleming ...

family, who bought it for their son who was studying at

St Andrews University The University of St Andrews (, ; abbreviated as St And in post-nominals) is a public university in St Andrews, Scotland. It is the oldest of the four ancient universities of Scotland and, following the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, t ...

. Thomas Erskine, 9th Earl of Kellie (c. 1745–1828), bought the estate back in the 1790s. A successful merchant in Sweden, he invested heavily in improving the estate, building the picturesque Georgian estate farms, and carrying out extensive land drainage. He commissioned the architect Robert Balfour to remodel the house in 1795. His descendants continued the improvement of the estate through the 19th century, laying out ornamental gardens, with a series of early

cast iron Cast iron is a class of iron–carbon alloys with a carbon content of more than 2% and silicon content around 1–3%. Its usefulness derives from its relatively low melting temperature. The alloying elements determine the form in which its car ...

bridges. The old house comprised a

tower house A tower house is a particular type of stone structure, built for defensive purposes as well as habitation. Tower houses began to appear in the Middle Ages, especially in mountainous or limited access areas, to command and defend strategic points ...

with numerous additions, including a first-floor conservatory. It was destroyed by fire in 1878, after a staff party when the Erskine family was away. The present house was built on the same site between 1879 and 1884, to designs by the architects Wardrop & Reid.

The estate

Cambo House is protected as a category B

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building is a structure of particular architectural or historic interest deserving of special protection. Such buildings are placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Hi ...

, and the grounds are included in the

Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland The ''Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes in Scotland'' is a listing of gardens and designed landscapes of national artistic and/or historical significance, in Scotland. The Inventory was originally compiled in 1987, although it is a cont ...

, the national listing of historic gardens. The house is operated as self-catering and bed & breakfast accommodation, while the walled garden and woodland gardens are open to the public year-round. The estate woodlands have a significant collection of

s, including over 300 varieties of ''

Galanthus ''Galanthus'' (from Ancient Greek , (, "milk") + (, "flower")), or snowdrop, is a small genus of approximately 20 species of bulbous perennial herbaceous plants in the family Amaryllidaceae. The plants have two linear leaves and a single sm ...

'' species, that are accredited with

Plant Heritage Plant Heritage, formerly known as the National Council for the Conservation of Plants and Gardens (NCCPG), is a registered charity and a botanical conservation organisation in the United Kingdom. It was founded in 1978 to combine the talents of bot ...

as a

National Plant Collection A National Plant Collection is a registered and documented collection of a group of cultivated plants in the United Kingdom. National Plant Collections are part of a plant conservation scheme run by Plant Heritage, a registered charity which aim ...

. Kingsbarns Golf Links was laid out in 2000 to designs by American

golf course architect A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a tee box, a fairway, the rough and other hazards, and a green with a cylindrical hole in the ground, known as a "cup". T ...

s Kyle Phillips and Mark Parsinen. The

, an annual pro-am golf tournament, is played in September on Kingsbarns, St Andrews Old Course, and

Carnoustie Carnoustie (; ) is a town and former police burgh in the subdivisions of Scotland, council area of Angus, Scotland. It is at the mouth of the Barry Burn on the North Sea coast. In the UK census 2011, 2011 census, Carnoustie had a population of ...

References

External links

Cambo Estate website

Cambo Gardens & Snowdrops website
{{coord, 56, 17, 39, N, 2, 38, 31, W, type:landmark_region:GB, display=title Houses in Fife Category B listed buildings in Fife Listed houses in Scotland Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes Gardens in Fife