Portal:Scotland/Selected article/Week 34, 2009

Kellie Castle is a castle just outside Arncroach, about 5 kilometres north of Pittenweem in the East Neuk of Fife, Scotland.

The earliest records of Kellie go back to 1150 where it is mentioned in a charter issued by King David I. The first known owner was Robert of London, the illegitimate son of King William the Lion. By 1266 Kellie had passed to the Siward family, who had hailed from Northumbria and had assisted King Malcolm Canmore to overthrow Macbeth. The estate was signed over to a Siward relative, Walter Oliphant, in 1360 and the castle remained in the ownership of the Oliphant family until 1613. It was purchased by Sir Thomas Erskine, Earl of Mar, who had saved the life of King James VI during the Gowrie Conspiracy by killing Sir Alexander Ruthven. The King stayed at Kellie in 1617 during his only visit to Scotland after the Union of the Crowns, and he appointed Erskine as Earl of Kellie in 1619.

The castle is a fine example of Scots Baronial domestic architecture, with an imposing mix of gables, corbelled towers, and chimneys.