Fingask Castle

Detail of William Delacour's painting of Dr. Sir Stuart Threipland, of Fingask (1716–1805), physician to Bonnie Prince Charlie during the Jacobite rising of 1745, and President of the Royal Medical Society from 1766–1770

In 1672 Patrick Threipland purchased the estate, which was erected into a barony the same year. He renovated the building and laid out the gardens,[2] and in 1674 he added the neighbouring Braes of the Carse tower house and estate of Kinnaird to his realm. The same year he was knighted for his diligence in the suppression of conventiclers, and in 1687 he was created a baronet of Nova Scotia, although he died a prisoner at Stirling Castle for adherence to the ousted King James VII, in 1689.

His son David, 2nd Baronet, (c.1670–1746) joined the Jacobite rising of 1715, and fought with the Earl of Mar against the government at the Battle of Sheriffmuir. When the rising failed, the baronetcy was attainted by act of parliament and Fingask and its estate was forfeited. Fingask was purchased for £9,606 6s 4.5d by the York Buildings Company, an English waterworks company which had begun to specialise in forfeited land. The company held the property until 1783, meanwhile leasing it to Dame Katherine (Kattrin) Threipland, "the lass of Gowrie" (d. 18 March 1762), daughter of the 2nd baronet.

Fingask Castle was badly damaged in 1745 by government troops, as the Threiplands once more supported the Jacobites in the second Jacobite rising.[2] David Threipland (1694–1745), son of the 2nd baronet, was killed at the Battle of Prestonpans. His half-brother Dr. Stuart Threipland (1716–1805), repurchased Fingask in 1783 at a sale of forfeited land, for £12,207. He married firstly at St. Paul's, Edinburgh, in 1753, Jannet, daughter of David Sinclair of Southdun, Caithness, and secondly at St. Paul's Edinburgh, in 1761, Jannet daughter of Richard Murray of Pennyland, heiress of her cousin Grizel Budge (d. 1798) of Dale & Toftingall, Halkirk, Caithness. His sister Miss Euphame ("Aunt Effie") Threipland (1713- ) is said to have run the estate in his absence. Dr Threipland was President of the Royal Medical Society from 1766.

Steuart and Peter Threipland's Q. Horatii Flacci Opera, Ludovicus Desprez, London, 1699

Bookplate of Sir Patrick Budge Murray Threipland, 4th Bart. (1762–1837), in a copy of a 1761 Book of Common Prayer

In 1826, the attainder of 1715 was repealed by Act of Parliament, and Sir Patrick (aka Peter) Budge Murray Threipland (1762–1837), an advocate, was restored to the dignity of a baronet. He later served as Deputy Lieutenant for Perthshire and Caithness. In 1792 he married his first cousin once-removed Jessy (d. 1855), daughter of William Scott Kerr of Chatto or Thirlestane. Her grandmother was a daughter of Sir David Threipland, 2nd Bt., by his first wife. Between 1828 and 1831 Sir Patrick added to the front west part of the house. Embellishment and building onto the south front continued until 1840.

Sir Patrick-Murray (aka Peter) Threipland, 5th Bt (1800–1882), was educated in Edinburgh and Paris. He served as a major in the Perth militia, retiring in 1843, and was a Commissioner for Supply for the counties of Perth and Caithness. He was also a Justice of the Peace and Deputy Lieutenant of Perth and Caithness.

Before and after his mother died in 1855 he lived at Fingask with his three elder sisters. The UK Census of 31 March 1851 records a staff of seven at Fingask: Housekeeper (Jean Oswald); Ladies Maid (Mary Gray); Cook (Margaret Stewart); Sir Peter's House Maid (Mary McLagan); Butler (David Chalmers); Footman (John Bertram); and Coachman (Andrew David). Mrs Drummond of Megginch Castle described the family:

"Sir Patrick Threipland lived there, and occasionally at Toftingall, Caithness, with his three sisters Miss Jessie [c.1796–1871] the clever, agreable hostess; Miss Eliza [c.1798- ], sarcastic and sharp tongued, the manager of the stables; and Miss Catherine [c.1799- ], the gardener – much less clever, but with far more sweetness than either of her sisters."[9]

When Miss Jessie died in May 1871, Mrs Drummond reported that the "life of the old house went out". On the death of Sir Patrick in 1882, the Threipland Baronetcy became dormant. Fingask was left to his first cousin's second son, William Scott Kerr, who subsequently changed his name to William Murray Threipland. In 1915 he was appointed to command the newly raised Welsh Guards, and became Colonel of the regiment in 1937.

Sir Patrick Murray Threipland, 5th Baronet (1800–1882), attributed to Sir John Watson Gordon (95 x 60 inches).

The castle passed out of the Threipland family again in 1917, when it was bought by whisky merchant Sir John Henderson Stewart, 1st Baronet. In 1917 the Fingask estate was made up of 2,587 acres (10 km²). This comprised arable 1,070 acres (4 km²), hill 1,400 acres (6 km²), and woods 116 acres (0.5 km²). The rental of the Fingask, and those of the much smaller estates of Kinnaird, and Inchmichael (which he had added), had given Sir John an annual rental return of £4,000. Sir John became heavily indebted due to the Prohibition of alcohol in the United States, and committed suicide at Fingask on 6 February 1924. The estate was bought by H. B. Gilroy of Ballumbie in 1925. The house was saved from ruin but wholly re-modelled, all spiral staircases removed and nineteenth-century frontal additions demolished.

In 1969 the estate returned to the Threipland family, when it was bought by Mark Stepney Murray Threipland, grandson of Colonel William Murray Threipland. He was the son of Patrick Murray Threipland and Marged Howard Stepney (a descendant of the 2nd Lord De Tabley and Jerome de Salis, amongst many others). By this time the estate had been reduced to 75 acres (30 ha). In 1996 Fingask was bought by Andrew Murray Threipland, son of Patrick Murray Threipland and Leslie McNair Scott. In 2020, Threipland revealed plans to transform part of the estate known as Witches Knowe into a barrow cemetery, with over one thousand burial plots, as well as creating a semi-underground candle-lit chamber in which relatives can deposit the ashes of their relatives.[10]

• Robert Chambers, The Threiplands of Fingask, Edinburgh, 1880.
• Rev. James M'Turk Strachan, BD, FRSA (Scot), From the Braes of the Carse, Charles Spence's Poems and Songs, 1898. (48 years minister at Kilspindie & died 1936).
• Melville, Lawrence, The Fair Land of Gowrie, William Culross & Son, Coupar Angus, 1939 (reprinted 1975), (chapter 27).
• Country Life, 18 July 1936.
• Christie's, Fingask Castle, Rait, by Perth, April 1993.
• David Chalmers, The Butler's Day Book 1849–1855, Everyday Life in a Scottish Castle, ed. Andrew Threipland, Perth, 1999.
• Country Life, 10 October 2006.
• Burke's Peerage, 1851.
• Burke's Landed Gentry, The Kingdom of Scotland, 19th edition, Delaware, USA, 2001.
• Friends of Perth & Kinross Council archive, newsletter no. 20.
• Jack Prout, Black Bob The Dandy Wonder Dog, D.C. Thomson & Co. Ltd. & John Leng & Co. Ltd., London, Glasgow, Manchester, Dundee, 1950. (castle is illustrated on pages 71 & 75, within the story: Clever Bob, The Dog Detective).
• Hunter, Thomas. (1883) Woods, Forests, and Estates of Perthshire with sketches of the principal families of the County. Perth. (pp. 490–492).
• The Courier and Advertiser, Dundee, 26 April 2008, page 5. (photo of Ivan Govorkov & pupils at Fingask).
• Galbraith, Antoinette. Scotland on Sunday, 28 January 2007.
• Patterson, Vicky Jardine. "Fun with the Fingask Follies". Scottish Field, June 2008, pp. 64–68.