Culross Palace is a late 16th to early 17th century merchant's house in

Culross Culross (/ˈkurəs/) (Scottish Gaelic: ''Cuileann Ros'', 'holly point or promontory') is a village and former royal burgh, and parish, in Fife, Scotland. According to the 2006 estimate, the village has a population of 395. Originally, Culross ...

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. The palace, or "Great Lodging", was constructed between 1597 and 1611 by Sir George Bruce, the

Laird Laird () is a Scottish word for minor lord (or landlord) and is a designation that applies to an owner of a large, long-established Scotland, Scottish estate. In the traditional Scottish order of precedence, a laird ranked below a Baronage of ...

Carnock Carnock () is a village and parish of Fife, Scotland, west of Dunfermline. It is east of Oakley, Fife. The name of the village derives from Scottish Gaelic, from ''ceàrn'' ("corner"), with a suffix denoting a toponym, thus giving " hecorne ...

. 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 Forth or FORTH may refer to: Arts and entertainment * ''forth'' magazine, an Internet magazine * ''Forth'' (album), by The Verve, 2008 * ''Forth'', a 2011 album by Proto-Kaw * Radio Forth, a group of independent local radio stations in Scotl ...

ports, the

Low Countries The Low Countries (; ), historically also known as the Netherlands (), is a coastal lowland region in Northwestern Europe forming the lower Drainage basin, basin of the Rhine–Meuse–Scheldt delta and consisting today of the three modern "Bene ...

and

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. He had interests in

coal mining Coal mining is the process of resource extraction, extracting coal from the ground or from a mine. Coal is valued for its Energy value of coal, energy content and since the 1880s has been widely used to Electricity generation, generate electr ...

salt In common usage, salt is a mineral composed primarily of sodium chloride (NaCl). When used in food, especially in granulated form, it is more formally called table salt. In the form of a natural crystalline mineral, salt is also known as r ...

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 A sea is a large body of salt water. There are particular seas and the sea. The sea commonly refers to the ocean, the interconnected body of seawaters that spans most of Earth. Particular seas are either marginal seas, second-order section ...

. Many of the materials used in the construction of the palace were obtained during the course of Bruce's foreign trade. Baltic

pine A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. ''World Flora Online'' accepts 134 species-rank taxa (119 species and 15 nothospecies) of pines as cu ...

, red

pantile A pantile is a type of fired roof tile, normally made from clay. It is S-shaped in profile and is single lap, meaning that the end of the tile laps only the course immediately below. Flat tiles normally lap two courses. A pantile-covered roo ...

s, and

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floor tiles and glass were all used. The exterior boasts the use of

crow-step A stepped gable, crow-stepped gable, or corbie step is a stairstep type of design at the top of the triangular gable-end of a building. The top of the parapet wall projects above the roofline and the top of the brick or stone wall is stacked in ...

ped gables, including a statue of a

veil A veil is an article of clothing or hanging cloth that is intended to cover some part of the human head, head or face, or an object of some significance. Veiling has a long history in European, Asian, and African societies. The practice has be ...

ed woman posing on the

gable A gable is the generally triangular portion of a wall between the edges of intersecting roof pitches. The shape of the gable and how it is detailed depends on the structural system used, which reflects climate, material availability, and aesth ...

step. The palace features fine interiors, with decorative mural and

ceiling painting A painted ceiling is a ceiling covered with an artistic mural or painting. They are usually decorated with fresco painting, mosaic tiles and other surface treatments. While hard to execute (at least in situ) a decorated ceiling has the advantage ...

, 17th and 18th-century furniture and a fine collection of

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and Scottish

pottery Pottery is the process and the products of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other raw materials, which are fired at high temperatures to give them a hard and durable form. The place where such wares are made by a ''potter'' is al ...

. Although it was never a

royal residence A palace is a large residence, often serving as a royal residence or the home for a head of state or another high-ranking dignitary, such as a bishop or archbishop. The word is derived from the Latin name palātium, for Palatine Hill in Rome whi ...

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visited the Palace in 1617. The palace is now in the care of the

National Trust for Scotland The National Trust for Scotland () is a Scottish Building preservation and conservation trusts in the UK, conservation organisation. It is the largest membership organisation in Scotland and describes itself as "the charity that cares for, sha ...

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 Historic Environment Scotland (HES) () is an executive non-departmental public body responsible for investigating, caring for and promoting Scotland's historic environment. HES was formed in 2015 from the merger of government agency Historic Sc ...

. 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 The Judgement of Solomon is a story from the Old Testament in which Solomon ruled between two women who both claimed to be the mother of a child. Solomon ordered the baby be cut in half, with each woman to receive one half. The first woman accept ...

, and extensive original decorative painting.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.

References

External links

Culross Palace
- official site at National Trust for Scotland
Engraving of nearby Culross House in 1693
by

John Slezer John Slezer (before 1650 – 1717) was a German-born military engineer and artist. Life Slezer was born in a German-speaking region of Europe, possibly the upper Rhineland. He may have spent his early years in military service to the Hous ...

at National Library of Scotland Houses completed in 1611 Houses in Fife Scheduled monuments in Fife Historic house museums in Fife Gardens in Fife National Trust for Scotland properties Listed houses in Scotland Listed palaces in Scotland Palaces in Fife 1611 establishments in Scotland Trade in Scotland Listed buildings in Culross {{Scotland-struct-stub