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William Sinclair
1st Earl of Caithness |
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Ravenscraig Castle Reconstruction
By Andrew Spratt |
Nobody likes to have
their property or titles taken away from them, but in 1471 when King James III
decided he wanted the Orkney earldom for himself, he swapped Ravenscraig Castle
for the earldom, which was held by William Sinclair (1408-1480), the Earl of
Orkney and Caithness at the time (see at right).
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| Ravenscraig Castle Today |
Ravenscraig
Castle was located in Kirkcaldy, just north and slightly east of Edinburgh
across the windswept Firth of Forth. Like
King James before him, Sinclair intended for the castle to have substantial
artillery fortifications. Thus, on both
the east and west ends on the front side of the castle were rounded towers massively
thick (some say up to 15-feet thick).
Perhaps that is why the
castle was the first in Scotland to be able to stand up to the cannons of the
age. In addition, cut into the walls of the castle are keyhole-shaped shot-holes for
artillery defense of the front side and the postern gate (see image at left).
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| Note the keyhole-shaped shot-hole. |
Images
of the ruins of Ravenscraig suggest that distinct romantic “feel” that one
associates with the great castles of the age.
Since nowadays the city of Kirkcaldy has grown out quite close to the
castle, it is said to have lost some of its romance, but the southern view
toward the Firth of Forth can still give one that secure feeling the Sinclairs
would have felt, knowing their castle was well-fortified on the front and
virtually inaccessible in the rear (see at right).
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| View of the Firth of Forth from Ravenscraig |
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| Ravenscraig's "Doocot" |
One
of the fun features of Ravenscraig is the dovecote (or “doocot,” as it was
pronounced in Scots). In the Middle
Ages, pigeons and doves served as a food source, so much like a farmer today
might have a chicken house, medieval castles had dovecotes. Not only the fowl themselves, but also their
eggs served as food, and even their dung could be put to use in the process
used to tan leather. Scottish doocots,
as the Ravenscraig example shows, were often shaped like a bee-hive and had an
opening at the top.
Interestingly,
despite the smell that must have been associated with them, doocots were a symbol of status and power and
were only to be owned by members of the nobility under a special right (droit) known as droit de colombier, the French word colombier being derived from the Roman columbarium (pigeon house).
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| Sir Walter Scott |
But
despite those practical matters of food and defense, Ravenscraig’s tale is
ultimately about the people of the place—their aspirations and their loves—and
who better than Scotland’s beloved novelist and poet, Sir Walter Scott, to tell
the sad tale of the beautiful Rosabelle Sinclair, who leaves Ravenscraig (Ravensheuch) and meets a terrible fate on the firth. In Canto VI of The Lay of the Last Minstrel, Scott writes:
O listen, listen, ladies gay!
No haughty feat of arms I tell;
Soft is the note, and sad the lay,
That mourns the lovely Rosabelle.
--"Moor, moor the barge, ye gallant crew!
And gentle ladye, deign to stay!
Rest thee in Castle Ravensheuch,
Nor tempt the stormy firth to-day.
"The blackening wave is edg'd with white:
To inch and rock the sea-mews fly;
The fishers have heard the Water-Sprite,
Whose screams forebode that wreck is nigh.
"Last night the gifted Seer did view
A wet shroud swathed round ladye gay;
Then stay thee, Fair, in Ravensheuch:
Why cross the gloomy firth today?"
" 'Tis not because Lord Lindesay's heir
To-night at Roslin leads the ball,
But that my ladye-mother there
Sits lonely in her castle-hall.
" 'Tis not because the ring they ride,
And Lindesay at the ring rides well,
But that my sire the wine will chide,
If 'tis not fill'd by Rosabelle."
O'er Roslin all that dreary night
A wondrous blaze was seen to gleam;
'Twas broader than the watch-fire's light,
And redder than the bright moonbeam.
It glar'd on Roslin's castled rock,
It ruddied all the copse wood glen;
'Twas seen from Dryden's groves of oak
And seen from cavern'd Hawthorn-den.
Seem'd all on fire that chapel proud,
Where Roslin's chiefs uncoffin'd lie,
Each Baron, for a sable shroud,
Sheath'd in his iron panoply.
Seem'd all on fire within, around,
Deep sacristy and altar s pale;
Shone every plllar foliage bound,
And glimmer'd all the dead men's mail.
Blaz'd battlement and pinnet high,
Blaz'd every rose-carved buttress fair--
So still they blaze when fate is nigh
The lordly line of high St. Clair.
There are twenty of Roslin's barons bold
Lie buried within that proud chapelle;
Each one the holy vault doth hold--
But the sea holds lovely Rosabelle!
And each St. Clair was buried there,
With candle, with book, and with knell;
But the sea-caves rung, and the wild winds sung
The dirge of lovely Rosabelle.
Post Script:
There are several videos about Ravenscraig Castle on YouTube
. For one that matches the mood of Sir Walter Scott's poem, try "View from Ravenscraig Castle" by Kevin Lockard. For one that shows the inside of the castle, try “Ravenscraig – 30th September 2011” by Ryan O'Neill. I'm not one much for the ghost angle, but the video stroll through the castle is instructive.
Lockard: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XstQdkdPfZM
O'Neill:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6iZ3wy19WA
Sources:
“Ravenscraig
Castle.” Whittington Family Tree. Ancestry.com.
6 May 2011. Web. 5 Jan. 2013.
“Sinclair,
Sir William, Third Earl of Orkney and First Earl of Caithness.” Dictionary
of National Biography. 22:1195. Ancestry.com.
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