Palace of Monimail
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The Palace of Monimail, also known as Monimail Tower, was a Renaissance palace in Fife, Scotland. Its remains are situated in the grounds of Melville House, near the tiny village of Monimail, 4km north of Ladybank.
Originally a residence of the Archbishops of St Andrews in the early seventeenth century, Monimail became a chief seat of the Melville family. Lord Monimail is one of the subsidiary titles of the Leslie-Melville Earls of Leven.
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[edit] Location
According to the "Historic and Architectural Information relating to Melville House" by Tom Morton Associates Architects of Auchtermuchty, Fife (October 2003) Monimail Palace is situated on "where the main road from St. Andrews to Perth joined that from St. Andrews to Stirling." In Medieval times it would have "stood on a sunny prominence with a good prospect across the Howe of Fife."
[edit] Origins
Monimail's situation upon the two roads that link Scotland's religious capital with two of the kingdom's most important cities would have made Monimail an attractive property for the Bishops of St Andrews and from the time of its earliest documentation (1206), Monimail was an estate belonging to the Bishop. Around 1319 William Lamberton (Bishop of St. Andrews 1298-1328) constructed a manor house of some quality at Monimail "in the period of stability that followed Bannockburn" ("Historic and Architectural Information relating to Melville House" - or HAIRMH).
[edit] The Renaissance Palace
According to legend the Palace was built by its most famous inhabitant: Cardinal David Beaton. However, HAIRMH asserts that this is wrong and that the building is in fact the work of his uncle (and predecessor as Archbishop of St Andrews between 1522-1539) James Beaton. HAIRMH describes Monimail in that era as "a comfortable, if quiet, country residence, capable of accommodating the elite and their entourages."
The records of the Episcopates of James and David Beaton show that it was their favourite residence after the city of St Andrews itself. James Beaton went to the expense of importing fruit trees from France to plant in the gardens.
After David Beaton's murder in 1546 the palace continued to be used by his successors until the time of the Reformation. "In 1552 Archbishop Hamilton spent eleven weeks at Monimail, under the celebrated treatment of Jerome Cardan, the most famous physician in Europe at this time. His treatment primarily related to dietary requirements, but included use of a shower bath and sleeping on raw silk rather than feathers" (HAIRMH).
In 1564 Archbishop Hamilton sold the Palace to Sir James Balfour of Pittendriech who, in turn sold (in 1592) the "palice, ludging, and maner place of Monymeil, with houssis, biggingis, yairdis, ortcheardis, barnis, doucattis, cunynghairis, paitis, pendiclis, outsettis, annexis, connexis and dependencis; and als the grene lyand foranent the foir yet of the said place" to Sir Robert Melville of Murdocairnie. This was ironic as members of the Melville family had been involved in the murder of the palace's most famous inhabitant, David Beaton.
[edit] The decline and ruin of Monimail
In the late 1690s Sir Robert's descendant, George Melville, 1st Earl of Melville, who had recently been appointed President of the Privy Council, decided to build himself a mansion in the fashionable Classical style on his Monimail estate, to be called Melville House.
For many years, Monimail Palace was maintained as picturesque folly in the park of the new stately home. It was described as being in "pretty good preservation" as late as 1791 (HAIRMH).
However, the presence of so much good quality stonework was too tempting for subsequent generations and much of the fabric of the palace was removed for re-use.
In the 1820s the Melvilles decided to landscape their park and much of the remaining palace was buried. One tower remains. Recently restored to a high standard of authenticity using historically correct materials, it can be visited in summer. The architectural detail, notably the Renaissance-style portrait roundels on the parapet, comparable to those at the near contemporary Falkland Palace, making it one of the finest quality surviving early Renaissance buildings in Scotland.
(This article is almost completely based on the "Historic and Architectural Information relating to Melville House" by Tom Morton Associates Architects of Auchtermuchty, Fife (October 2003
