Scottish Castles

Local information

Pitreavie Castle, Fife

Location: Dunfermline, Fife KY11 8TX (map and directions)

Today, Pitreavie Castle is a country house converted into residential apartments, but Pitreavie has passed through several hands as a privately owned castle and property of the Air Ministry since its construction in the early 14th century.

Pitreavie Castle

History of Pitreavie Castle

Pitreavie Castle is located between Rosyth and Dunfermline in Fife, and was first owned by Lady Christina Bruce, Robert the Bruce’s sister in the 14th century. By the 17th century the Kello family owned Pitreavie, when Henry Wardlaw of Balmule, the Chamberlain to Queen Anne, wife of James IV of Scotland purchased the estate. Wardlaw constructed the house into a much more grand building than its original frame, and its symmetrical U-shaped layout, spiral staircases and intricate design means that Pitreavie is considered to be an important example of a 17th century house planned in the style of Sir James Murray, the King’s Master of Works.

The castle stayed in the family’s hands until 1703, when it was sold to Archibald Primrose, 1st Earl of Roseberry, who passed it quickly on to Sir Robert Blackwood, eventually the Lord Provost of Edinburgh. Pitreavie Castle remained with the Blackwoods for 170 years, though a near century of that it was left vacant. It was eventually sold to the Air Ministry, who transformed the building into the headquarters for operation coordination between the Royal Navy and Air Force, and then the NATO North Atlantic Area headquarters after WWII until it closed in 1996.

Map and directions

Other castles in Fife