Farnell Castle

This three-storey mansion, sited 6 kms south of Brechin Cathedral in Angus, was built of rubble and slate by the See of Brechin to replace a much earlier castle and monastery. From 1488 to 1514, it was occupied by Bishop William Meldrum (of Seggie), who referred to it in 1512 as Palatium Nostrum (Our Palace). In 1566, the property was sold to Catherine, Countess of Crawford, who converted it to a more modern house, with two rooms on each floor. Original features include a corbelled staircase tower on the south façade and a garderobe (privy closet structure) projecting from the east end of the north façade, with a pair of flues exposed near the castle’s roofline. 

The original bishops’ residence, defined by a pair of crow-stepped gables, remains at the east end of the building. On the east gable, a double row of corbels seems to have once supported a roofed gallery. The original structure also features a series of ancient shields—one initialled I.M. (Iesus Maria) and another ornamented with a crowned M.

References

—‘Bishop of Brechin’, Wikiwand.

— David MacGibbon and Thomas Ross, 1887, The Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland From the Twelfth to the Eighteenth Century, vol. 2. Edinburgh: David Douglas, pp. 501–502.

—‘Farnell Castle’, Wikipedia.

—‘William Meldrum (bishop)’, Wikipedia.