The Palace of Monimail, also known as Monimail Tower, was a

Renaissance The Renaissance ( , ) , from , with the same meanings. is a period in European history marking the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and covering the 15th and 16th centuries, characterized by an effort to revive and surpass ideas ...

palace 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 (i ...

, Scotland. A residence of the

Archbishops of St Andrews The Bishop of St. Andrews ( gd, Easbaig Chill Rìmhinn, sco, Beeshop o Saunt Andras) was the ecclesiastical head of the Diocese of St Andrews in the Catholic Church and then, from 14 August 1472, as Archbishop of St Andrews ( gd, Àrd-easbaig ...

from the 13th century, in the early 17th century Monimail became a chief seat of the

Melville family Melville is a surname and a given name. The surname has two different origins: Scottish and Irish. In Scotland, the name is a habitational name, originally of Norman origin, derived from any of several places called Malleville in Normandy. The ...

. Lord Monimail is one of the subsidiary titles of the Leslie-Melville

Earls of Leven Earl of Leven (pronounced "''Lee''-ven") is a title in the Peerage of Scotland. It was created in 1641 for Alexander Leslie. He was succeeded by his grandson Alexander, who was in turn followed by his daughters Margaret and Catherine (who are us ...

. It was abandoned in the late 17th century and subsequently most of the palace was demolished. One tower remains standing in the grounds of

Melville House Melville House is a 1697 house that lies to the south side of the Palace of Monimail near Collessie in Fife, Scotland. It has been a school and a training base for Polish soldiers who had arrived in Scotland after the 51st Highland Division ...

near the village of Monimail, north of

Ladybank Ladybank () is a village and former burgh of Fife, Scotland. It is about north of Edinburgh, southwest of Cupar, close to the River Eden. Its 2006 population was estimated at 1,582. History Before the 18th century, this area was mostly marshl ...

Origins

Monimail Palace was situated at the junction of the main roads between St. Andrews,

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

and

Stirling Stirling (; sco, Stirlin; gd, Sruighlea ) is a city in central Scotland, northeast of Glasgow and north-west of Edinburgh. The market town, surrounded by rich farmland, grew up connecting the royal citadel, the medieval old town with its me ...

, overlooking the

Howe of Fife The Howe of Fife is the broad, low-lying valley of the River Eden, lying between the Ochil Hills and the Lomond Hills in Fife, Scotland. ''Howe'', in Scots means a hollow or a plain bounded by hills. The alternative terms ''Laich of Fife'' and ...

. This would have made Monimail an attractive property for the

Bishops of St Andrews The Bishop of St. Andrews ( gd, Easbaig Chill Rìmhinn, sco, Beeshop o Saunt Andras) was the ecclesiastical head of the Diocese of St Andrews in the Catholic Church and then, from 14 August 1472, as Archbishop of St Andrews ( gd, Àrd-easbaig ...

and from the time of its earliest documentation (1206), Monimail was an estate belonging to the bishop. Around 1319

William Lamberton William de Lamberton, sometimes modernized as William Lamberton, (died 20 May 1328) was Bishop of St Andrews from 1297 (consecrated 1298) until his death. Lamberton is renowned for his influential role during the Scottish Wars of Independence. ...

(Bishop of St. Andrews 1298–1328) constructed a manor house of some quality at Monimail "in the period of stability that followed

Bannockburn Bannockburn (Scottish Gaelic ''Allt a' Bhonnaich'') is an area immediately south of the centre of Stirling in Scotland. It is part of the City of Stirling. It is named after the Bannock Burn, a stream running through the town before flowing int ...

The Renaissance Palace

According to legend the Palace was built by its most famous inhabitant:

Cardinal Cardinal or The Cardinal may refer to: Animals * Cardinal (bird) or Cardinalidae, a family of North and South American birds **''Cardinalis'', genus of cardinal in the family Cardinalidae **''Cardinalis cardinalis'', or northern cardinal, the ...

David Beaton David Beaton (also Beton or Bethune; 29 May 1546) was Archbishop of St Andrews and the last Scotland, Scottish Cardinal (Catholicism), cardinal prior to the Scottish Reformation, Reformation. Career Cardinal Beaton was the sixth and youngest ...

(c.1494–1546). However, recent research suggests that the building is in fact the work of his uncle, and predecessor as Archbishop of St Andrews,

James Beaton James Beaton (or Bethune) (1473–1539) was a Roman Catholic Scottish church leader, the uncle of David Cardinal Beaton and the Keeper of the Great Seal of Scotland. Life James Beaton was the sixth and youngest son of John Beaton of Balfour ...

(1473–1539). Monimail is described in this era as "a comfortable, if quiet, country residence, capable of accommodating the elite and their entourages."Arc Architects, pp.3-4 Church records show that it was the favourite residence of James and David Beaton after St Andrews itself. James Beaton went to the expense of importing fruit trees from France to plant in the gardens. After David Beaton's murder in 1546 the palace continued to be used by his successors until the time of the

Reformation The Reformation (alternatively named the Protestant Reformation or the European Reformation) was a major movement within Western Christianity in 16th-century Europe that posed a religious and political challenge to the Catholic Church and in ...

. Archbishop John Hamilton (1512–1571), spent several weeks at Monimail in 1552 receiving medical treatments, for an unspecified condition, overseen by the Italian physician

Jerome Cardan Gerolamo Cardano (; also Girolamo or Geronimo; french: link=no, Jérôme Cardan; la, Hieronymus Cardanus; 24 September 1501– 21 September 1576) was an Italian polymath, whose interests and proficiencies ranged through those of mathematician, ...

Mary, Queen of Scots Mary, Queen of Scots (8 December 1542 – 8 February 1587), also known as Mary Stuart or Mary I of Scotland, was Queen of Scotland from 14 December 1542 until her forced abdication in 1567. The only surviving legitimate child of James V of Scot ...

visited the castle for dinner on 23 March 1563 but stayed at Baillinbreich. In 1564 Archbishop Hamilton sold Monimail to Sir James Balfour of Pittendriech. By this time the majority of the palace, with the exception of the tower, was said to be derelict. Balfour and his son undertook restoration of the tower, before selling on the estate in 1592 to Sir Robert Melville of Murdocairnie.Arc Architects, p.6

The decline of Monimail Palace

In the late 1690s Sir Robert's descendant, George Melville, 1st Earl of Melville (1636–1707), who had recently been appointed President of the

Privy Council A privy council is a body that advises the head of state of a state, typically, but not always, in the context of a monarchic government. The word "privy" means "private" or "secret"; thus, a privy council was originally a committee of the mon ...

, decided to build himself a mansion in the fashionable Classical style on his Monimail estate, to be called

. For many years, the remains of Monimail Palace were maintained as a picturesque

folly In architecture, a folly is a building constructed primarily for decoration, but suggesting through its appearance some other purpose, or of such extravagant appearance that it transcends the range of usual garden buildings. Eighteenth-cent ...

in the park of the new house. The tower of the palace was described as being in "pretty good preservation" as late as 1791. In the 1820s the Melvilles built walled gardens, changing the ground levels around the site of the palace and resulting in most of the remains being buried.

Monimail Tower

The surviving tower comprises three storeys over a basement, which was later altered to form an ice house. The lower parts of the tower are likely to be part of the episcopal palace, though the upper parts date from later 16th-century restoration. An investigation in 1993 discovered the buried remnant of a corner tower to the north-west of Monimail Tower, and an adjoining section of curtain wall. The architectural detail, notably the Renaissance-style portrait roundels on the parapet, is comparable to that at the nearby

Falkland Palace Falkland Palace, in Falkland, Fife, Scotland, is a royal palace of the Scottish Kings. It was one of the favourite places of Mary, Queen of Scots, providing an escape from political and religious turmoil. Today it is under the stewardship of ...

. The roundels at Monimail probably date from the 1570s, while those at Falkland were executed in the 1530s and the oaken

Stirling Heads Stirling (; sco, Stirlin; gd, Sruighlea ) is a city in central Scotland, northeast of Glasgow and north-west of Edinburgh. The market town, surrounded by rich farmland, grew up connecting the royal citadel, the medieval old town with its me ...

are from around 1540. A restoration of the tower, to a high standard of authenticity using historically correct materials, was overseen by the Monimail Tower Preservation Trust in the 1990s-2000s. The gardens around the Tower are home to a small

intentional community An intentional community is a voluntary residential community which is designed to have a high degree of social cohesion and teamwork from the start. The members of an intentional community typically hold a common social, political, religious, ...

. The tower is a

category A listed building Category, plural categories, may refer to: Philosophy and general uses *Categorization, categories in cognitive science, information science and generally *Category of being * ''Categories'' (Aristotle) *Category (Kant) * Categories (Peirce) * ...

in recognition of its national importance.

References

External links

Monimail Tower restoration
Arc Architects {{DEFAULTSORT:Palace Of Monimail Category A listed buildings in Fife Listed palaces in Scotland Palaces in Fife Tower houses in Scotland Episcopal palaces in Scotland