Opening times: 29 March – 30 September 10.00am to 5.00pm; 1 October – 31 October, 10.00am to 4.00pm; November to 28 March, closed.
Entry: Adult £13.00, concession £10.00, family £35.00, one adult family £22.50.
Access: Nearby car park, no charge.
Back in November I spent a lovely day exploring Culross, a handsome and really quite unique village on the north shore of the Forth River. However, the one place I wasn’t able to visit was Culross Palace as it was closed during the winter months, and I resolved to return in the spring so that I could complete my exploration of this former royal burgh. I am very glad I did, as the Palace is a stunning artistic wonder from the late Renaissance period.
Entrance tickets to this marvel are on sale at the National Trust for Scotland (NTS) shop in the Town House, just a hop, skip and jump along from the palace. Culross Palace, like much of the village, is under the care of the NTS, and they only admit eight people every fifteen minutes to protect the loading capacity on the palace’s old wooden beams.
The Palace is impossible to miss; it is the biggest building in the village, sits right at its centre, and is painted bright ochre, a colour chosen to emphasise the wealth of the person who had it built. Despite its name, that person was not the king or any other member of the royal family, but a merchant by the name of George Bruce, who traded in salt and coal. As detailed in my entry for Culross, Bruce was responsible for creating the world’s first undersea coal mine. Regardless of his wealth, he would never have called his residence a palace for the simple reason it wasn’t one; quite when and why the Culross Palace name originated is now obscured. A ten minute film introduces the visitor to both Palace and to George Bruce, and they are then left to explore this magnificent building at their leisure.
The entrance to Culross Palace. This part of the complex, the south block, was built in 1597.The first room visitors enter is the High Hall, which is where Bruce would welcome his guests. This hall was originally twice its current size, but was divided in 1750 and a ‘withdrawing room’ added, the entrance to which can be seen on the right. A withdrawing room is where guests would retire for after dinner relaxation and entertainment, and the name was eventually shortened to ‘drawing room’. Note the barrel-vaulted ceiling, common in Belgium and the Netherlands during the 16th – 18th centuries, and appropriated by Scottish merchants like Bruce, who traded there.The Withdrawing Room was created by Bruce’s descendants the Erskine family in the mid-18th century during their renovations of Culross Palace. The low, whitewashed ceiling suggests the barrel-vaulted model had fallen out of fashion.The wonderfully named Principle Stranger’s Room, which would have been made available to any important guest staying with the Bruces. It had its own entrance so that both host and guest were accorded a degree of privacy.The Strong Room is adjacent to and can only be entered via the Laird’s Room. Bruce operated in the days before banks (they didn’t come along until 1695) so all his money, documents, and papers had to be securely stored in his residence. It was protected by iron doors and three-feet thick stone floor, ceiling and walls that were built to be both fire and cannonball-proof.Iron doors and thick stone cladding weren’t the only means Bruce employed to protect his family and fortune. Strange symbols and sigils are carved into the fireplace in Laird’s Room to deny entry to witches. Bruce may have employed science in creating his deep sea mine, but he still lived in a world that believed in sorcery.The Painted Chamber is the stunning centrepiece of Culross Palace. This outstanding room may have been something Bruce showed off to his visitors or it equally might have been a room where family members could retreat to for quiet contemplation. The sixteen panels depict allegorical scenes providing life lessons such as “Look after your family” and “Time brings all things to an end”.Another view of the Painted Chamber. The portrait is of George Bruce. Another magical painted room in the Palace’s north wing. The north wing was constructed in 1611. The crow-stepped gables and pantile roof tiles show further Flemish influence. The pantiles were imported by Bruce and used on the palace and many of the other buildings in Culross.After leaving the Palace I walked a block west and then turned up this wynd, called Bessie Bar Steps, to reach the Hanging Gardens Viewpoint. Looking out over the Palace, its garden and the River Forth at Hanging Gardens Viewpoint. The garden is a recreation of a 17th century one, and this would have been used to grow food and medicine as well as for aesthetic purposes and relaxation. Another view of the palace and gardens from Hanging Gardens Viewpoint, this showing a ‘doocot’ in the foreground and the Town Hall tower in the back.
Destination or Diversion?
I’m calling this a destination. I daresay it could be done in under an hour, but that would not be doing the palace justice. Plus, it’s in Culross. Despite me doing it today, I don’t see many people coming just to the Palace and not exploring the surrounding village. A trip to Culross incorporating a trip to the palace is easily a full afternoon out.
Some garden ornaments with the south (left) and north wings (right) in the background.
1 thought on “Culross Palace”
Susan Moon
Culross and the palace are now on my list. Great pictures by the way 👍🏼
Culross and the palace are now on my list. Great pictures by the way 👍🏼