Wemyss Castle (pronounced [weems]) is situated inWemyss on the sea cliffs between the villages ofEast Wemyss andWest Wemyss inFife,Scotland. Wemyss Castle is considered to be a multi-period building, and today's castle includes many elements from former periods such as the 15th-century tower and the 19th-century stables andgatepiers.
Accounts date the construction of the castle to 1421 when Sir John Wemyss decided to build a fortified castle to replace one destroyed by theDuke of Rothesay atKilconquhar in 1402. The castle is thus the ancient seat of theEarls of Wemyss and their families. Historically, the castle is perhaps best known as the location whereMary, Queen of Scots, met her future husbandLord Darnley, on 17 February 1565.[1]
The court ofJames VI stayed at Wemyss Castle in July 1583.[2] On 11 May 1590 a party of Danish commissioners led byPeder Munk and the Scottish lawyerJohn Skene stayed at Wemyss Castle. Their task was to view and takesasine ofFalkland Palace andDunfermline Palace andLinlithgow Palace, the properties given toAnne of Denmark by James VI as a "morning gift".[3]
In April 1591 King James had Lilias (or Sophia) Ruthven, a daughter ofWilliam Ruthven, 1st Earl of Gowrie, shut away in Wemyss Castle to prevent her marryingLudovic Stewart, 2nd Duke of Lennox.[4] Lennox managed to get his bride out of the castle and marry her atDunkeld, and after 10 days the king allowed the couple to come to court.[5]
In 1592Sir John Wemyss of Wemyss provided a refuge at the castle for the queen's Danish lady-in-waitingMargaret Vinstarr whose partnerJohn Wemyss of Logie had plotted withFrancis Stewart, 5th Earl of Bothwell against the king.[6] The incident is celebrated in a ballad,The Laird o Logie.[7]
John Wemyss was obliged to keep prisoners for the king at Wemyss, including in 1597 Archie Armstrong of Whitehaugh from theScottish borders. Wemyss and otherLairds complained about this duty, and in April James VI wrote to him and asked him to bring Armstrong as a prisoner to be kept atFalkland Palace instead.[8]
In the 1890s the nearbyCoaltown of Wemyss was established as anestate village on land belonging to Wemyss Castle, in order to house mineworkers employed in several coal mines in the area.[9]
Wemyss is an imposing castle sitting high atop cliffs with a view over theFirth of Forth. Two particular points of interest are that one of the towers from an earlier building has been re-used, first as a windmill and later as adovecote. There is also an oval-shaped dungeon within the castle, connected to the building by a passage.[10]
Some believe Wemyss possesses, like a number of Scottish castles, a "Green Lady". Folk beliefs in Scotland and Britain have traditionally associated the colour green with misfortune.[11] Wearing green at a wedding was considered particularly unlucky,[12] with a Scottish saying recorded in 1892 explaining that "Married in May, and kirked in green / Baith bride and bridegroom winna lang be seen".[13] In the case of Wemyss, the ghost is that of a young woman wearing a trailing dress of green silk which rustles as she floats along the corridors within the castle. A news report in 2007 suggested that sightings had ceased in recent years.[14]
56°08′39″N3°04′51″W / 56.1442°N 3.0808°W /56.1442; -3.0808