Tour
historic Elcho Castle
Located
at Easter Elcho, Rhynd in Perth and Kinross, Elcho Castle
was built in the latter half of the 16th century for the
Wemyss family, whose descendents still own it, although
it is now in the care of Historic Scotland. Overlooking
the River Tay, the tower-shaped castle has many original
features, including the ruins of the courtyard, the chapel
and a round tower with kiln.
Elcho has been in the ownership of the Wemyss family for
five and a half centuries, if not longer. It was part of
the possessions confirmed to Sir John Wemyss of Wemyss by
James III in 1468, and is still owned by the earls of Wemyss.
The date when the present castle began to be built is uncertain,
though it was probably in the third quarter of the sixteenth
century. We know that the lands were confirmed to Sir John
Wemyss in 1552, and this may have been a way of ensuring
that his title to it was sound before he started a major
campaign of rebuilding. He was certainly able to sign a
charter at Elcho in 1558, though that does not necessarily
mean that the new house was complete, since there must already
have been a house on the site before the one we now see.
However, there is a record that in 1570 the laird of Wemyss
owed the late Thomas Bryson or Boynting the sum of £7 for
ironwork, and it is tempting to suspect that this was for
the wrought iron grilles or yetts at the windows and main
doorway, and that the main work was complete by then.
The house we now see was never intended to stand in isolation,
and work on the ancillary buildings associated with it probably
continued over several generations -to meet changing requirements.
The remains of a range which ran along one side of the main
courtyard of the castle have the initials IEW on the gable,
perhaps in reference to John earl of Wemyss. The earldom
was created for him by Charles I in 1633 and he died in
1649. Around the house and the courtyards immediately associated
with it would have been a small dependent township, of which
the modem farm and houses in the area are the successors.
There was a small boat anchorage below the castle at the
junction of the River Tay with the bum which runs down the
east side of the castle. Boats may also have been able to
enter the quarry immediately north of the castle, which
used to be flooded and connected to the river by a short
cut.
It is not certain when the castle ceased to be a principal
residence of the Wemyss family, though it was perhaps after
the seventh earl acquired the Gosford estate, in East Lothian,
in 1781. Elcho probably housed tenants and farm labourers
after it was no longer used by members of the family. Nevertheless,
it continued to be important to the Wemyss family since,
until quite recently, the heirs of the earls of Wemyss bore
the title of Lord Elcho. It was re-roofed in about 1830
by the eighth earl, and it was probably around the same
time that the cottage on the west side of the courtyard
was built. The eleventh earl placed the castle in the care
of the state in 1929, and it is now cared for by Historic
Scotland on behalf of the Secretary of State for Scotland.
Elcho was built at a period when domestic comfort, convenience
and privacy were coming to be regarded as increasingly desirable
by the greater landholders. Yet the times were not yet so
settled that it was wise to dispense completely with the
means of defending oneself from the attacks of rivals, while
the trappings of defensibility might also be seen as something
of a status symbol associated with land holding. What we
see at Elcho, therefore, is a fascinatingly ingenious response
to these differing needs, which provided its fortunate occupants
with accommodation of a very high standard together with
a considerable degree of security. The walls are mainly
of rubble masonry, much of which may have been taken from
the quarry to the north of the house, while the dressings
to the windows, doorways and corners are of dressed ashlar.
Originally, of course, all of this would have been covered
by lime render, masking any irregularities that are now
evident, and slight traces of this render may still be seen.
Towards the entrance courtyard on its south side, the
house presented an elongated facade with a square entrance
tower at its western angle. Although not symmetrical this
facade was carefully composed to give an appearance of measured
regularity. At the wall head the massing was enlivened by
a restrained display of turrets, dormers and conically-roofed
turrets. The tower, which had the only entrance to the house
at its base, was the only part of the house to have an open
wall-walk behind a parapet, giving it externally something
of the appearance of a distinct tower-house.
Thee
flanks of the courtyard in front of the house were probably
originally defined by ranges, of which part of that on the
west survives. At the south-eastern angle of the courtyard,
behind the modern house, is a round tower from which it
was possible to fire along the adjoining courtyard walls,
and there may have been similar towers at the other angles.
There were probably further courtyards to contain ancillary
buildings such as stables and farm buildings, and there
would also have been gardens and orchards. Immediately to
the north of the castle, where there is the quarry, there
was no need for defensive walls. The face of the house overlooking
the quarry is much less regular than that towards the courtyard,
with three unequally spaced towers along its length; dearly
there was less effort to create impressive architecture
here, and it is on this side that most of the latrine chutes
are concentrated; nevertheless, the results are attractive
to modern eyes.
The single entrance doorway at the base of the south-west
tower opened onto the spacious spiral main stair within
the tower, which rose no higher than the principal rooms
on the first floor. Members of the family and their visitors
would proceed straight up the stair to that level, because
the whole of the ground floor was occupied by the kitchen
and associated larders and storerooms. These are all covered
by stone vaulting which created a fire-proof barrier and
gave greater structural strength to the building as a whole.
Piercing the walls of the ground floor are seventeen gun-loops
which would have effectively discouraged .11 but the most
persistent unwanted visitors. In the sills of some of these
loops are wooden battens with a central hole, which would
have allowed the hand-held guns to be swivelled through
the splayed mouth of the opening. Though there are windows
at this level, they are smaller than those at the upper
levels and stoutly barred. The kitchen is the first of the
rooms to open off the corridor along the courtyard side
of the ground floor. It has a large arched fireplace, within
which most of the cooking took place over an open fire,
and at the back of which is a domed bread oven. From the
store-room next to the kitchen a spiral service stair led
to the upper storeys of the house, allowing servants to
carry food both to the hall and bedchambers.
The main room on the first floor was the hall , a
splendidly proportioned space warmed by a fireplace in the
south wall. The entrance end of the hall was almost certainly
partitioned off by a timber draft screen, which would have
left the fireplace centrally positioned within the hall.
Opening off the screened-off vestibule was a small storage
room and two of the three stairs which interconnected the
upper storeys of both the main block and the two towers
at the west end of the building, though one of those stairs
does not open onto both of the upper storeys in the main
block. The hall was lit by four large windows which would
have had glazing in their upper parts and wooden shutters
behind; externally these windows had massive grilles as
a security measure. Originally the walls of the hall were
plastered.
Opening off the far end of the hall was the doorway
to the rooms which probably served as the lodging of the
owner. The main room was a large square chamber, with a
smaller inner chamber beyond; within the inner chamber was
a mural latrine, with a chute leading down to a cess chamber
on the rear side of the house. This lodging was the finest
in the house, and there are traces of an elaborate plaster
cornice which was added at the junction of the wall and
ceiling, probably in the early seventeenth century. When
furnished, adorned with hangings and with a fire burning
in the fireplace, it must have provided delightful accommodation
for the owner of the house.
But
many of the other lodgings and bedchambers on the two upper
floors of the castle must have been almost as handsome,
and one of the great delights for visitors to Elcho is to
try to understand the ways in which the planning on those
levels would have functioned. Allowance must be made for
missing partitions of timber and plaster which subdivided
the two levels above the hall, and for timber lobbies which
were once devised around some of the doorways that opened
off the stairways. When this is done, it can be seen that
there were a number of individual chambers, while other
chambers also had inner chambers or closets. The scale of
these varied considerably, and in some cases floor levels
were carefully modified to achieve the best proportions.
But all of them had separate access from one of three spiral
staircases, so that their occupants could have complete
privacy, and all of them were- provided with a fireplace
and a latrine. Most of these rooms would have been for members
of the Wemyss family, their guests and important members
of their household. We must assume that, apart from body
servants who slept on truckle beds or in the inner closets,
the other servants would have been accommodated within the
courtyard buildings.
The ingenuity on the part of the designer of Elcho that
was needed to achieve such well-contrived planning is quite
remarkable; indeed, there are few modem houses which could
afford so many occupants so much space and so many amenities.
Text by Richard Fawcett, 1997
