Skulferatu #126 - Coastal Turret, Ravenscraig Park, Kirkcaldy

 

It was one of those days made for walking, cool and sunny with no wind.  So, I jumped on a train and headed over to Kirkcaldy, a town in Fife.  I have always meant to do a bit of exploring around Kirkcaldy, as I don’t think I’ve had a serious wander about there since I was in my early teens.  All I can really remember from then is going to a swimming pool somewhere near the sea front, and that there was a big ugly shopping centre, now demolished.  There was also a café, which may have been part of the swimming pool complex, that had a really good jukebox.  I have memories of drinking cups of tea to Bowie, Blondie, The Undertones, and lots of other stuff that blew my mind at that age.

 

Arriving in Kirkcaldy, I wandered down through the town, down the High Street to the seafront.  Though lively, the town seemed almost to have a bit of a split personality with trendy sushi places and cafés sitting next to run down looking betting shops, charity shops, bargain shops and derelict buildings.  The town centre is one of those places full of potential and screaming out for a bit of investment.  Maybe one day it will get some.

 

Wandering along the seafront I passed by old industrial buildings, new industrial buildings, and a few rather bland housing estates.  After cutting down by a rather ancient graveyard I ended up on the beach along from the castle at Ravenscraig, and just down from Ravenscraig Park.  There I spotted a small turret on a wall reaching out towards the sea.  It looked like it should be part of some grand Disney style castle, so intrigued I decided to go and explore. 

 

Ravenscraig Beach

 

View along to the Coastal Turret

 

The Coastal Turret

 

Bathing…at this point

A view of the Costal Turret

 

A view of the Costal Turret

 

Leaving the beach, I wandered up some stairs past an old Doocot and moseyed on to the little tower.  There was no castle, just this little turret on the curve of a sea wall.  It was nothing more than at attractive little folly to add a bit of interest to the wall.  The wall that runs around Ravenscraig Park and overlooks the Forth.  The park was originally part of the grounds of Dysart House and was gifted to the people of Kirkcaldy in 1929 by Sir Michael Nairn, an industrialist who owned several linoleum factories in the area.

 

A view of the Costal Turret and the Forth

 

Doorway into the Coastal Turret

 

View out from the Coastal Turret

 

View along the coast from the Coastal Turret

 

The Lookout Tower was built in the early 19^th Century, it serves no real purpose and was built as a folly or a gazebo.  It is however quite an aesthetically pleasing little building, especially when viewed from the beach.

 

After taking in the views, I left the Skulferatu that had accompanied me, in a gap in the wall by the tower.

 

Skulferatu #126

 

Skulferatu #126 in a gap in the wall by the Coastal Turret

 

Map showing the location of Skulferatu #126

 

The coordinates for the location of the Skulferatu are -

 

Latitude 56.118922

Longitude -3.136093

 

what3words: decent.orange.reduce

 

I used the following sources for information on the Coastal Turret –

 

Historic Environment Scotland - Ravenscraig Park Lookout Tower

Skulferatu #47 - Seafield Tower, Kirkcaldy, Fife

 

The walk along the Fife Coastal Path, from Kinghorn to Seafield Tower, takes you up and down a narrow trail and past some spectacular scenery of jagged rocks and crashing waves.  There are lots of tiny coves and rocky pits and hollows to explore, and on a calm day you can see colonies of seals sunning themselves on the rocks exposed at low tide.

 

Seafield Tower as seen from rocks by the Forth

 

View of ruins of Seafield Tower from Fife Coastal Path

 

The ruins of Seafield Tower sit on the Fife coast between Kinghorn and Kirkcaldy.  It was built in the early to mid-sixteenth century on land that had been granted by King James II to Richard Multrare (Moultrie) in 1443.  It remained in the Moultrie family for several generations.  In 1631 the tower was sold by Robert Moultrie to James Law, the Archbishop of Glasgow for 19,700 marks (£1,095).  After the Archbishop’s death the tower went through several other owners before finally being abandoned and left to fall into ruin.  

A sketch of Seafield Tower as it was circa 1887

It is thought that the ruin was used as a smugglers den for a number of years.  It was noted by David MacGibbon and Thomas Ross when they visited the tower in the late 1880s that smugglers seemed to have made alterations to the building. 

 

Seafield Tower as seen from the beach below

 

The ruins of Seafield Tower standing on a rocky outcrop

 

The ruins of Seafield Tower

 

The ruins of Seafield Tower

 

The Rev. James Taylor mentions the tower in his book ‘Historical Antiquities of Fife’.  He, however, felt it lacked any historical gravitas and wrote - ‘Passing onwards and eastwards, we come to the…tower of Seafield.  It is built upon a rocky ledge, which the waves wash, and has the broad Firth as its lawn.  Prominent for situation, the eye often turns to it, and the expectation is awakened, as if it ought to be the scene of something memorable.  But no legend of romance, no fact of history, no popular tradition, attaches to it.  It is a ruined tower by the sea and nothing more.’

 

View of the ruins of Seafield Tower looking on to the Forth

 

Interior walls of Seafield Tower

 

View out over the Forth through doorway created in tower wall

 

It would appear that the tower originally consisted of five storeys and was part of an L shape castle constructed from local red sandstone and surrounded by a wall on the landward side.  It is likely that it followed the pattern of other castles in this area with storage on the ground floor, the Great Hall on the level above that and then the upper levels all being given over to accommodation.  Much of the building has now gone, with part of the tower collapsing in a storm in 2013.

 

I left the Skulferatu that accompanied me on today’s walk in a gap in a wall inside the ruins of the tower.

 

Skulferatu #47

 

Skulferatu #47 in a gap in the wall of the tower

 

Map showing the location of Skulferatu #47

 

The coordinates for the location of the Skulferatu are –

 

Latitude 56.084120

Longitude -3.159048

 

I used the following sources for information on Seafield Tower –

 

The Moultries

South Carolina Historical and Genealogical Magazine, Vol 5

1904

 

John Gray Centre – Research Guide – Old Scottish Money

Research Guides - Money

 

The Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland from the Twelfth to the Eighteenth Century

Volume Three

By David MacGibbon and Thomas Ross

1887

 

Historical Antiquities of Fife, Chiefly Ecclesiastical, Connected with Some of its Districts

Volume Two

Rev. James W. Taylor

1875

 

The Scotsman – 8 Lesser-known castles of Scotland

11 September 2018

8 lesser-known castles of Scotland | The Scotsman