Donibristle () was a house and

estate Estate or The Estate may refer to: Law * Estate (law), a term in common law for a person's property, entitlements and obligations * Estates of the realm, a broad social category in the histories of certain countries. ** The Estates, representativ ...

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 ...

, on the coast of the

Firth of Forth The Firth of Forth () is a firth in Scotland, an inlet of the North Sea that separates Fife to its north and Lothian to its south. Further inland, it becomes the estuary of the River Forth and several other rivers. Name ''Firth'' is a cognate ...

. Only the wings of the house remain, within the modern settlement of

Dalgety Bay Dalgety Bay () is a coastal town and parish in Fife, Scotland, on the north shore of the Firth of Forth, 9 miles from Edinburgh city centre. It is part of the Greater Dunfermline Area and is connected to Inverkeithing to the West. The civil pa ...

. They are now protected as a category A

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 ...

. Donibristle was the scene of the killing of

James Stewart, 2nd Earl of Moray James Stewart, 2nd Lord Doune, ''jure uxoris'' 2nd Earl of Moray (c. 1565 – 7 February 1592), was a Scottish nobleman. He was murdered by George Gordon, Earl of Huntly as the culmination of a vendetta. Known as the Bonnie Earl for his good ...

, in 1592, which is remembered in the ballad " The Bonnie Earl O' Moray".

History

The first house

Around 1540, James Stewart of Doune was made

Commendator In canon law, commenda (or ''in commendam'') was a form of transferring an ecclesiastical benefice ''in trust'' to the ''custody'' of a patron. The phrase ''in commendam'' was originally applied to the provisional occupation of an ecclesiastical ...

Inchcolm Abbey Inchcolm Abbey is a medieval abbey located on the island of Inchcolm in the Firth of Forth in Scotland. The Abbey, which is located at the centre of the island, was founded in the 12th century during the episcopate of Gregoir, Bishop of Dunkel ...

, which is located on an island in the Firth of Forth. Donibristle was then a property of the abbey, and James used it as a residence. In 1580, his son

James James may refer to: People * James (given name) * James (surname) * James (musician), aka Faruq Mahfuz Anam James, (born 1964), Bollywood musician * James, brother of Jesus * King James (disambiguation), various kings named James * Prince Ja ...

was raised to the

peerage A peerage is a legal system historically comprising various hereditary titles (and sometimes Life peer, non-hereditary titles) in a number of countries, and composed of assorted Imperial, royal and noble ranks, noble ranks. Peerages include: A ...

Lord Doune Lord is an appellation for a person or deity who has authority, control, or power over others, acting as a master, chief, or ruler. The appellation can also denote certain persons who hold a title of the peerage in the United Kingdom, or are e ...

. Lord Doune's son

James Stewart James Maitland Stewart (May 20, 1908 – July 2, 1997) was an American actor and military aviator. Known for his distinctive drawl and everyman screen persona, Stewart's film career spanned 80 films from 1935 to 1991. With the strong morali ...

married, in 1581,

Elizabeth Stuart, 2nd Countess of Moray Elizabeth Stuart, 2nd Countess of Moray ''suo jure'' (1565 – 18 November 1591), was a Scottish noblewoman and cousin of King James VI. Life The Countess of Moray was the eldest daughter of James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, the illegitimate ...

, and assumed, ''

jure uxoris ''Jure uxoris'' (a Latin phrase meaning "by right of (his) wife"), citing . describes a title of nobility used by a man because his wife holds the office or title '' suo jure'' ("in her own right"). Similarly, the husband of an heiress could beco ...

'' (in right of his wife), the title of the

Earl of Moray The title Earl of Moray, or Mormaer of Moray (pronounced "Murry"), was originally held by the rulers of the Province of Moray, which existed from the 10th century with varying degrees of independence from the Kingdom of Alba to the south. Until ...

. Moray quarrelled with

George Gordon, 1st Marquess of Huntly George Gordon, 1st Marquess of Huntly (156213 June 1636) was a Scottish nobleman who took a leading role in the political and military life of Scotland in the late 16th century, and around the time of the Union of the Crowns. Biography The son ...

, and on 7 February 1592 Huntly attacked and burned Donibristle. Moray attempted to flee but was caught and killed.

The second house

The old house was refurbished by

James Stuart, 4th Earl of Moray James Stuart, 4th Earl of Moray (c. 1611 – 4 March 1653) was a Scottish nobleman and landowner. He was the son of James Stuart, 3rd Earl of Moray and Lady Anne Gordon, a daughter of George Gordon, 1st Marquess of Huntly and Henrietta Stewa ...

between 1632 and 1653. His wife, Margaret Home, had a cabinet room which held a variety of treasures and curiosities, including a miniature bowling game with ivory pins, a painting of a parrot, a loadstone, and telescope bought in London in 1634. Many of the furnishing were bought by her mother Mary, Countess of Home. An inventory of their library includes the ''

L'Astrée ''L'Astrée'' is a pastoral novel by Honoré d'Urfé, published between 1607 and 1627. Possibly the single most influential work of 17th-century French literature, ''L'Astrée'' has been called the "novel of novels", partly for its immense le ...

'' and a book by the calligrapher

Esther Inglis Esther Inglis ( or ) (1571–1624) was a skilled member of the artisan class, as well as a Portrait miniature, miniaturist, who possessed several skills in areas such as calligraphy, writing, and embroidering. She was born in 1571 in either L ...

. Near the house there was a fountain with a bronze figure of winged Mercury posed on a turtle, possibly the work of

Hubert Le Sueur Hubert Le Sueur (; – 1658) was a French people, French sculpture, sculptor with the contemporaneous reputation of having trained in Giambologna's Florence, Florentine workshop. He assisted Giambologna's foreman, Pietro Tacca, in Paris, in finis ...

. The water jet issued from the mouth of the turtle, as Thomas Kirk described in 1677.

The third house

A new house was constructed around 1700, and around 1720 L-plan wings of three storeys were added, to the designs of Alexander McGill. McGill also designed the mortuary chapel of the Earls of Moray on the estate, which is dated 1731 and is also category A listed. In the late 18th century landscape gardener Thomas White laid out the parkland.

James Gillespie Graham James Gillespie Graham (11 June 1776 – 21 March 1855) was a Scottish architect, prominent in the early 19th century. Much of his work was Scottish baronial in style. A prominent example is Ayton Castle. He also worked in the Gothic Revival ...

prepared plans for Jacobean-style remodelling in the earlier 19th century. The main block of the house burned down in 1858. The surviving wings are linked by a subterranean passage and a decorative

wrought-iron Wrought iron is an iron alloy with a very low carbon content (less than 0.05%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4.5%), or 0.25 for low carbon "mild" steel. Wrought iron is manufactured by heating and melting high carbon cast iron in an ...

screen, said to be the finest early 18th century wrought-iron screen still in existence in Scotland.

The fourth house

During World War I the estate was used by the

Royal Naval Air Service The Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS) was the air arm of the Royal Navy, under the direction of the Admiralty (United Kingdom), Admiralty's Air Department, and existed formally from 1 July 1914 to 1 April 1918, when it was merged with the British ...

as an airfield, which was expanded during World War II as RNAS Donibristle (HMS ''Merlin''). From 1962 the airfield and the rest of the estate was developed as

, a privately funded

new town New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz (South Korean band), The Boyz * New (album), ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 ** New (Paul McCartney song), "New" (Paul McCartney song), 2013 * New (EP), ''New'' (EP), ...

. Begun by Copthall Holdings, the site was taken over by the Scottish Homes Investment Company and construction continued into the 1970s. In the late 20th century the wings of Donibristle House and the nearby stable block were restored as housing, and a new apartment building was erected in place of the main block of the house.

References

{{reflist Listed houses in Scotland Category A listed buildings in Fife Demolished buildings and structures in Scotland Dalgety Bay