Fingask Castle is a country house in Perth and Kinross, Scotland. It is perched 200 feet above Rait, three miles north-east of Errol, in the Braes of the Carse, on the fringes of the Sidlaw Hills. Thus it overlooks both the Carse of Gowrie and the Firth of Tay and beyond into the Kingdom of Fife.
Fingask was once an explicitly holy place, a convenient and numinous stop-off between the abbeys at Falkirk and Scone. In the eighteenth century it was a nest of Jacobites. Today, though still riddled with shrines, it is best known for its garden and parties. Fingask is also home to the Fingask Follies, an annual musical event that takes place in late May and early June.
a jewel in the bosom of a glen, (anon. referring to Fingask) fionn-gasg: a white or light coloured appendage.The Fingask Castle Subscription Mural can be found at Fingask.
during the Jacobite rising of 1745, and President of the Royal Medical Society from 1766-1770]]
The Bruce family owned the lands of Rait, including Fingask, from the 15th century. The castle itself is dated 1592, and was built around a 12th century structure. In 1672, Sir Patrick Threipland, 1st Baronet, purchased the estate, which was erected into a barony the same year. Sir Patrick renovated the building and laid out the gardens. He died a prisoner at Stirling Castle for adherence to the ousted King James VII, in 1689. His son David, 2nd Baronet, joined the Jacobite rising of 1715, and fought against the government at the Battle of Sheriffmuir. He was attainted when the rising failed, and his forfeited estates were purchased by the York Buildings Company, an English waterworks company which had begun to specialise in forfeited land.
Fingask Castle was badly damaged in 1745 by government troops, as the Threiplands once more supported the Jacobites in the second Jacobite rising. and in 1783, it was bought back by the Threiplands, in the person of Dr. Stuart Threipland, physician. Between 1828 and 1840 additions were made to the south and west of the castle. Sir Patrick Threipland, 4th Baronet (1762-1837) laid out the park, and his son planted the topiary gardens and installed statuary. The castle passed out of the Threipland family again in 1917, when it was bought by whisky merchant Sir John Henderson Stewart, 1st Baronet. The estate was bought by H. B. Gilroy of Ballumbie in 1925, who removed many of the 19th century additions, and since 1969 has once more been the home of the Threipland family. The castle is a Category B listed building, and the estate is included on the Inventory of Historic Gardens and Designed Landscapes, the national register of significant gardens.
The garden is renowned for its topiary, but also features The Pavilion, a picturesque venue for things such as colloquia and wedding parties. There are statues by David Anderson, sculptor, of Perth, of characters from Scots literature. Works depicted include Robert Burns' or Alexander Thomson's (1763-1803) Meg and Watty, Burns' Willie Brew’d a Peck o’ Maut, And Rab and Allan cam’ tae Pree, Sir Walter Scott's Last Minstrel/Ossian, and Burns' Tam O' Shanter and Kate. By other sculptors are also to be found the naked black figure of Doryphoros; a full length statue of William Pitt the Younger, and some small pieces by Charles Spence. Off the drive, in a sheltered glen, is the Well of St. Peter with the Linn-ma-Gray flowing beside it. On a stone above the well are the appropriate lines:
Fingask is a venue for the Fingask Follies, an annual musical revue series. Parties, weddings and other musical performances are also held at Fingask.
