Donibristle ( sco, also Dunibirsle) was a house and estate in

Fife Fife (, ; gd, Fìobha, ; sco, Fife) is a council area, historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. It is situated between the Firth of Tay and the Firth of Forth, with inland boundaries with Perth and Kinross ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to ...

, on the coast of the

Firth of Forth The Firth of Forth () is the estuary, or firth, of several Scottish rivers including the River Forth. It meets the North Sea with Fife on the north coast and Lothian on the south. Name ''Firth'' is a cognate of ''fjord'', a Norse word meani ...

. 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. According to Fife Council, the town is home to , making this the eighth-largest place in Fife. The civil parish has a population of 10,777 (in 2011).Census of Scotland 2011, Table KS ...

. They are now protected as a category A

listed building In the United Kingdom, a listed building or listed structure is one that has been placed on one of the four statutory lists maintained by Historic England in England, Historic Environment Scotland in Scotland, in Wales, and the Northern I ...

. Donibristle was the scene of the killing of

James Stewart, 2nd Earl of Moray James Stewart (later Stuart), 2nd Lord Doune, 2nd Earl of Moray (c. 1565 – 7 February 1592) was a Scottish nobleman, the son of James Stewart, 1st Lord Doune and Margaret Campbell. He was murdered by George Gordon, Earl of Huntly as the ...

, in 1592, which is remembered in the ballad "

The Bonnie Earl O' Moray "The Bonnie Earl o' Moray" (Child 181,''The English and Scottish Popular Ballads'', Edited by Francis James Child in Five Volumes, Dover Publications, Minneola, New York, 2006. Roud 334) is a popular Scottish ballad, which may date from as early ...

History

The first house

Around 1540, James Stewart of Doune was made Commendator of

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 Dunk ...

, 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 was raised to the

peerage A peerage is a legal system historically comprising various hereditary titles (and sometimes non-hereditary titles) in a number of countries, and composed of assorted noble ranks. Peerages include: Australia * Australian peers Belgium * Be ...

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 ...

. Lord Doune's son

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

married, in 1581,

Elizabeth Stuart, 2nd Countess of Moray Elizabeth Stewart, 2nd Countess of Moray suo jure (Late 1565 – 18 November 1591), was the daughter of James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray and Agnes Keith. She was born at St Andrews while her father was in exile in England following the Chas ...

, 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, Mormaer of Moray or King of Moray 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 1130 th ...

. 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 o ...

, 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 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 Stewart. He married ...

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 leng ...

'' 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 miniaturist, who possessed several skills in areas such as calligraphy, writing, and embroidering. She was born in 1571 in either LondonFrye, Susan. 201 ...

. 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 (c. 1580 – 1658) was a French sculptor with the contemporaneous reputation of having trained in Giambologna's Florentine workshop. He assisted Giambologna's foreman, Pietro Tacca, in Paris, in finishing and erecting the equestria ...

. 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 – 11 March 1855) was a Scottish architect, prominent in the early 19th century. Life Graham was born in Dunblane on 11 June 1776. He was the son of Malcolm Gillespie, a solicitor. He was christened as J ...

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 0.08%) in contrast to that of cast iron (2.1% to 4%). It is a semi-fused mass of iron with fibrous slag inclusions (up to 2% by weight), which give it a wood-like "grain" t ...

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

The 4th 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's Air Department, and existed formally from 1 July 1914 to 1 April 1918, when it was merged with the British Army's Royal Flying Corps t ...

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 is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created. New or NEW may refer to: Music * New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz Albums and EPs * ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013 * ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...

. 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