Seafield Tower

Seafield Tower, Fife Photo © Euan Nelson, 29 May 2008

Seafield Tower, Fife Photo © Richard Webb, 5 September 2009

Seafield Tower, Fife Photo © George Hamilton, 2004

Little remains of this fortalice which was built with local red sandstone in the sixteenth century. Records indicate that it was abandoned in 1733. The tower house was occupied between the 16th and 18th centuries by the Methven family.

Seafield Tower, built by John Moultray around 1542 is a ruined castle on the North Sea coast of Fife in Scotland. The Fife Coastal Path passes the tower.

Built of local red sandstone in the 16th century, Seafield Tower lies between Kinghorn and Kirkcaldy in Fife, Scotland. The lands of Seafield and Markinch were granted to Richard Multrare by James II of Scotland in 1443. The lands and the tower remained in the ownership of the Multrare (or Moultrie as the family name became) until 1631 when the lands were sold to James Law then Archbishop of Glasgow. With Law's death in 1832 ownership of the tower becomes lost but eventually it passed into the hands of the Methven family. Its last owner was Methven of Raith who abandoned it in 1733.

The tower was believed to be five stories high with walls 5 feet (1.5 m) thick and maximum internal dimensions of 20 feet 2 inches (6.1 m) by 14 feet 4 inches (4.4 m).

Since 1973 the remains of the tower have been designated a Category B listed building by Historic Scotland.

--SEAFIELD TOWER, FIFESHIRE.

Built on a rock close to the sea, about a mile north-east from Kinghorn, this ruin consists of a square tower about 32 feet by 26 feet, with walls about 5 feet 6 inches thick. The ground floor has been vaulted, and there has been a wheel-stair at the south-east corner

The building seems to have been altered at a recent date, probably by smugglers. It has been surrounded by a wall, at least on the landward side, parts of which remain, and also possibly by a fosse.

Seafield was the home of the Moultrays, or Moutrays. The last Moultray of Seafield was killed during the rebellion of 1715. Subsequently the tower belonged to the Earls of Melville, and is now part of the Raith estate.

THE CASTELLATED AND DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE OF SCOTLAND BY DAVID MACGIBBON AND THOMAS ROSS, 1889--