Tulliallan Castle is a large house in Kincardine,

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. It is the second structure to have the name, and is a mixture of

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

and Italian style architecture set amid some of parkland just north of where the

Kincardine Bridge The Kincardine Bridge is a road bridge crossing the Firth of Forth from Falkirk council area to Kincardine, Fife, Scotland. History The bridge was constructed between 1932 and 1936, to a design by Sir Alexander Gibb & Partners, Consulting En ...

spans 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 ...

. It has been the home of the

Scottish Police College The Scottish Police College is based at Tulliallan Castle, in Kincardine. Since 1 April 2013, the college has been under the control of Police Scotland. In addition to probationer training, the college provides training in various specialist ar ...

since 1954. On 1 April 2013, Tulliallan Castle became the headquarters of

Police Scotland Police Scotland ( gd, Poileas Alba), officially the Police Service of Scotland (), is the national police force of Scotland. It was formed in 2013, through the merging of eight regional police forces in Scotland, as well as the specialist service ...

(the newly created national police service for Scotland), but in 2014 the service's headquarters temporarily relocated to nearby

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 ...

in the former Central Scotland Police HQ.

14th-century castle

An earlier structure about northwest, Old Tulliallan Castle, was built by 1304, when it was ordered to be strengthened by

Edward I of England Edward I (17/18 June 1239 – 7 July 1307), also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England and Lord of Ireland from 1272 to 1307. Concurrently, he ruled the duchies of Aquitaine and Gascony as a vassa ...

, it then passed into the ownership of

William Douglas, 1st Earl of Douglas William Douglas, 1st Earl of Douglas (c. 1323 – 1 May 1384) was a Scottish nobleman, peer, magnate, and head of the Black Douglas family. Under his leadership, the Black Douglases continued their climb to pre-eminence in Scottish politics ...

, and was granted by the Douglases to the Edmonstones, and thence to a junior branch of the Blackadders, and finally to the

Bruce The English language name Bruce arrived in Scotland with the Normans, from the place name Brix, Manche in Normandy, France, meaning "the willowlands". Initially promulgated via the descendants of king Robert the Bruce (1274−1329), it has been a ...

s of Carnock. A

fortified A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere'' ...

house with a

keep A keep (from the Middle English ''kype'') is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word ''keep'', but usually consider it to refer to large towers in c ...

and rib-vaulted ground floor, it was abandoned in the seventeenth century.

19th-century castle

The castle was built in 1812–1820 for Admiral Lord Keith, one time senior officer of

Lord Nelson Vice-admiral (Royal Navy), Vice-Admiral Horatio Nelson, 1st Viscount Nelson, 1st Duke of Bronte (29 September 1758 – 21 October 1805) was a British people, British flag officer in the Royal Navy. His inspirational leadership, grasp of strate ...

, paid for with

prize money Prize money refers in particular to naval prize money, usually arising in naval warfare, but also in other circumstances. It was a monetary reward paid in accordance with the prize law of a belligerent state to the crew of a ship belonging to t ...

. The labour force said to include French prisoners of war. During the

Second World War World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

it was used by the

Polish Armed Forces in the West The Polish Armed Forces in the West () refers to the Polish military formations formed to fight alongside the Western Allies against Nazi Germany and its allies during World War II. Polish forces were also raised within Soviet territories; thes ...

as their headquarters in Scotland. Prior to the Second World War there was no central training for police officers in Scotland. After the war it was decided to centralise all police training and Tulliallan was the result. Tulliallan, from the Gaelic ''Tulach-Aluin'' ('beautiful knoll') was purchased in 1950 by the then

Scottish Home Department The Scottish Office was a department of the Government of the United Kingdom from 1885 until 1999, exercising a wide range of government functions in relation to Scotland under the control of the Secretary of State for Scotland. Following the e ...

for £9,100. The building was modernised and renovated and the first courses for inspectors and sergeants began in 1954. Over the years the site has been heavily modified to provide accommodation, catering, training, and teaching facilities for the

. The building is now used as the administrative head of the Scottish Police College and also serves as the official residence of the Chief Constable of

References

External links

*
Gazetteer for Scotland entry for Old Tulliallan Castle
{{coord, 56.07472, N, 3.71254, W, region:GB_source:enwiki-osgb36(NS935882), display=title 1820 establishments in Scotland Castles in Fife Category A listed buildings in Fife Country houses in Fife Houses completed in 1820 Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes Listed castles in Scotland Listed government buildings in Scotland Official residences in the United Kingdom