Fordell Castle

Fordell Castle is located 1¼ miles north-west of Dalgety Bay and 2 miles east of Dunfermline, in Fife, Scotland.

The lands of Fordell were given to the Henderson family by King James IV in 1511. Mary, Queen of Scots, stayed here when Marion Scott, one of her ladies-in-waiting, married George Henderson, the laird. The castle was destroyed by fire, but rebuilt c.1580. The castle was damaged again by Oliver Cromwell's army in 1651 and lay in ruin.

The family had built a new mansion nearby in the 19th century, but they kept the castle in good repair. In 1866, the estate passed by marriage to Hew Duncan, second son of the Earl of Camperdown.

Te nearby mansion was demolished some years ago, and there is little evidence of its existence, other than a little stonework and foundation remains. The woodland has wholly taken over its former location. A solid stone bridge over the former railway gives away its entrance road to the South East.

The ruins were purchased by the flamboyant politician Sir Nicholas Fairbairn for one hundred pounds sterling. The castle was restored to its full glory and used as a private residence by Sir Nicholas and his wife Lady Sam Fairbairn, before he died in 1995. Lady Sam continued to live there until 1997 when it was sold on to a local veterinary surgeon, before being sold on again to multi-millionare businessman Andrew Berry.

Fordell Castle was sold for £3,850,000 in November 2007 to an undisclosed buyer, making Fordell the fifth-highest-priced home ever sold in Scotland.fact|date=January 2007 The Castle and extensive grounds remains a private residence.

The Castle's walled garden is now a commercial plant nursery - Fordell Nursery.

Within the grounds is a chapel dedicated to St. Therotus, or Theriot. The grounds consist of Italianate gardens, that are slowly being brought back to their full glory. The entrance to the Castle passes over a bridge past a weir that formerly held back the waters of the Fordell Burn, providing a lake that has now all but silted up. Rhododendrons surronud the former lake, and line the avenues through the Estate.

The Castle sits, fairly uniquely, in dense woodland, with very little opportunity to view it from anywhere, other than up close, or from a significant distance to the South West.

Close to the Castle, the Fordell Day Level surfaces. This is a historic mine 'river' connecting the foot of numerous pits from as far afield as Cowdenbeath, draining the mines to assist coal mining in time sgone by. It is now one of Scotland's worst pollution issues, issueing heavily iron polluted mine water into the nearby watercourse. Ongoing open-cast mining being carried out by ATH Resources promises to solve this issue as part of their reparations.

One of Scotland's oldest railways runs between the Castle and Vantage Farm. The Fordell railway route took coal from the Fife coalfields to the ships in what is now Dalgety Bay. The original wooden rails are long gone, although the embankments remain, and carriages can be viewed in the museum of Scotland. A winding house existed, although the location is unknown, to assist coal down the incline to the coast.

The former primary entrance avenue and gates to the East lead to Vantage Farm, a small steading featuring Scotland's only octagonal Doo'cote, and ornate farm buildings sporting a clock tower. The steading is largely residential, and conversion works are ongoing, although in an adhoc manner due to disparate ownerships, and one particularly stubborn resident.