Works of art, reports of digs and records of architecture open up the gates to historical mysteries. It is these records, the paintings and drawings of professional artists and amateur visitors; the notes of travellers along the roads of the East Neuk the research of professionals and the expositions of architects exploring the efforts of those who went before them who reveal the secrets of the past.
Where to begin, is the question.
The early 21st
century saw modern research begin to open the past for the present.
And challenged 21st century dreamers to dig through the entrails of the past.
It also produced more questions than were answered.
For instance,
if the tower was 15th century: why the shot holes, who was the enemy,
who was the builder and what happened to the dry moat that must have protected
the castle: when was it filled in?
Why was no licence issued or recorded for the building of such a structure?
Did no visitor or resident describe this space that most interests the 21st century explorer? Are there documents yet to be discovered that will provide a picture in words?
What was the arched stone feature to the south west of the castle?
Was there a
walled garden as a contemporary map at
Kelly Castle suggests?
What is the bricked structure on the face of the cliff to the south?
Was there a
tunnel to the sea or to the village kirk,
as local legend attests?
What was the
route taken up from the sea by smugglers, one of whose
ghostly spectre is said to haunt the castle to this day?
Was the sun
reflecting off the castles red roof,
according to a contemporary traveller, hitting upon red pantile tiles?
Many roofs in St Monans village still sport these relics of another time.
Originally, these tiles came as ballast in ships returning from Holland and
would certainly have complemented General Sir David Leslie's Dutch gables
and been highly compatible with the tastes he developed during the 30 years he
spent serving on the continent with the Protestant forces allied against Rome.
This section is
dedicated to the arts:
the paintings, writings, architecture and archaeology
that will meld with the practiced eye of the engineer and dreamer
to recreate the old and new "warks" of the Castle of St Monance of other times.
* * * * * * * * * *
In
1892 a marvelous series of five volumes
describing the architecture of
Scotland’s castles was completed.
David
MacGibbon and Thomas Ross, both architects, wrote the monumental work,
The Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland
from the Twelfth to the
Eighteenth Century.
In
the fourth volume they describe Saint Monance as follows:
Newark, Fifeshire.
The
castle is approached from the north-east only, being on all other sides
well defended by the sea and precipitous rocks.
There has been an arched entrance gateway in the enclosing wall
adjoining the round tower at the north east angle.
This was strongly defended with double gates, each secured with
bars inside, the holes for which still exist . . .
Facing the gateway is the entrance door to the newer structure.
It is of a Renaissance character, projected in front of a
circular –faced tower . . . In
this tower is the staircase, which continues to the top.
Immediately inside the gateway three is another entrance doorway
to the castle, leading, by a descending passage, to a half-sunk
apartment in the round tower. From
this passage a doorway opens into the kitchen fireplace, and gives
access to the kitchen, which has also a door to the staircase.
The
round tower contains five floors, each provided with a fireplace.
At every stage the shape of the rooms varies in a most
extraordinary manner, no two floors being the same in plan.
Access
to the upper floors is not now attainable, the stairs and floors being
entirely ruinous. We have
already remarked on the door opening into the back of the kitchen
fireplace. Another singular
arrangement exists on the floor above, where, from the room over the
kitchen, a door leads into the flue of the kitchen fireplace, which is a
place of considerable size, being about 12 feet by 6 feet.
This flue has apparently been partly joisted over, and some kind
of wood and plaster construction seems to have been erected in it,
possibly for the purpose of smoking or curing meat.
An arrangement of a similar kind existed at Elphinstone Tower and
elsewhere. The
courtyard on the south side of the castle occupies the remaining flat
surface of the rock, and contains some remains o walls and vaults,
which, like the whole place, are in a ruinous and neglected state.
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Mike Salter has spent the last two decades riding about Scotland, England, Wales and Ireland detailing castles and their histories. These soft cover volumes make great reading for anyone who wants to take along a book illuminating the castles as they are visited. He also produced a single volume with a few lines on each castle. It is great to keep in your pocket or purse to keep track of castles visited and when. Ours notes 11 January 2000 for our first visit to this wonderful ruin. In his volume, The Castles of the Heartland of Scotland, he writes of St Monance on page 53 under the name of Newark:
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Click here to read the Measured Spot Survey of the Castle
Click here to read the Data Structure Report of the Castle