Spynie Palace, also known as Spynie Castle, was the fortified seat of the Bishops of Moray for about 500 years in Spynie, Moray, Scotland. The founding of the palace dates back to the late 12th century. It is situated about 500 m from the location of the first officially settled Cathedral Church of the Diocese of Moray, Holy Trinity Church in present-day Spynie Churchyard. For most of its occupied history, the castle was not described as a palace — this term first appeared in the Registry of Moray in a writ of 1524.[1]
The beginnings of the Bishopric of Moray are unclear. The first mention of a bishop was Gregoir whose name appeared on several royal charters in the 1120s. The early bishops of Moray had no fixed abode but moved between houses at Birnie, Kinneddar and Spynie.[2] In 1172, King William I, the Lion, made grants to the church of the Holy Trinity of the Bishopric of Moray and to Bishop Simon de Tosny. Formal permission for the permanent move to Spynie was given by Pope Innocent III to Bishop Bricius de Douglas in April 1206 and the transfer was probably made by 1208.[3] Bishop Bricius attended the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215 and may have appealed to Innocent to transfer the See of Moray to Elgin. However, he certainly wrote to him requesting the move before July 1216.[4] The cathedral church of Spynie was considered vulnerable to attack and too far from the market. Elgin with its royal castle would have been seen as a better option. Bricius did not live to see the changes made, dying in 1222, but his successor, Bishop Andrew of Moray carried them out.[5] Although the See of Moray was transferred to the Church of the Holy Trinity in Elgin on 19 July 1224, the Bishop of Moray's episcopal palace remained at Spynie.[6]
The fortified residence
12th and 13th centuries
The first castle was a wooden structure built in the late 12th century and was revealed in excavations carried out between 1986 and 1994.[7] The excavated evidence suggests that the buildings were surrounded by a rectangular ring work and ditch which seem to have enclosed an area of roughly the same as the 14th-century curtain wall, i.e., an enclosure of 45 – 65 m and is large even by medieval ring works found elsewhere in Britain. The buildings would likely have consisted of the bishop's house with a hall, a bed chamber and a chapel and also holding a brewhouse and a bakehouse.[6]
The early living quarters
The stone buildings first appeared in the 13th century with the establishment of what was thought to have been a chapel and which had coloured glass windows.[8]
The first recorded mention of the castle is in a document held in the British Museum. This manuscript dates from the early 14th century but appears to have been compiled between 1292 and 1296 and was apparently for the use of English administrators during King Edward I of England's occupation of Scotland.[9][10] The first writ issued at Spynie Castle was in 1343 and is recorded in the Register of Moray[11]
14th and early 15th centuries
The remaining wooden buildings were gradually replaced with stone, and this continued through into the 14th century when the first main castle building was erected. This was a near-square structure built within a 7-metre-high curtain wall. The main entrance in the wall faced to the south and a tower that projected from the south-east corner had narrow openings for archers.
In this period Alexander Stewart, Earl of Buchan, otherwise known as the Wolf of Badenoch, attacked and burned Elgin Cathedral in June 1390. It also appears that he took Spynie Castle as King Robert III (Buchan's brother) issued an instruction to Buchan in August 1390 forbidding him to 'intromit' the Castle of Spynie for any reason.[12] Following Bishop Alexander Bur's death in 1397, the King, in conformity with feudal established practice during the period of the vacant seat, took possession of the castle and perversely appointed the now reformed Wolf of Badenoch to be warden of the castle.[12] After the election of the new bishop, the King issued a writ on 3 May 1398 to Buchan to hand over the castle and contents to Bishop William without claiming expenses.[12]
Later 15th and 16th centuries
It is thought that Bishop John de Winchester (1435–60) was responsible for moving the main gate to the east wall which contained a strong portcullis.[13] The architectural detail of the upper section of the gate remains and show the gatekeeper's room complete with a small fireplace. John, as well as being the Bishop of Moray, was also the king's Master of Works and had been responsible for alterations to the castles at Inverness and Urquhart as well as the palace at Linlithgow.[14] The fine stonework and styling of the gate may have been carried out by the master masons working on the restoration work at Elgin Cathedral following its destruction in 1390.[15]
David's Tower
The most significant buildings were established in the later 15th century through into the 16th century when David's Tower (also known as Davey's Tower) was built along with other substantial accommodation areas. The tower is the largest by volume of all medieval Scottish towers measuring 19 m by 13.5 m and 22 m in height and was started by Bishop David Stewart (1462–76) and completed by Bishop William Tulloch (1477–82).[16] It has 6 storeys above ground and had a garret on the top. Below ground is a vaulted basement which is approximately 1.5 m below the level of the courtyard; it contains a circular dungeon, 5.3 m in diameter, lit only by a narrow loop looking to the west and has a slightly domed vaulted roof.[17] The ground floor contained the hall which is 12.8 m by 6.7 m and lit by large windows with built-in stone seats.[17] At the NE corner was a spiral staircase which led to the upper floors. Each of these floors was similar in design with a single large room and smaller chambers leading off it. The tower is plain and practically lacking in architectural features; the external walls were originally rendered while the internal walls were plastered.[18]
Bishops David Stewart's and Patrick Hepburn's armorial shields below
Stewart was also responsible for converting the old hall in the west range to kitchens to service the tower. It was said that the building of the tower was a reaction to intimidation from the Earl of Huntly whom Stewart had excommunicated for failing to pay his taxes.[19] During the mid-16th century, a walled garden to the south of the castle precinct was established mainly to house an orchard. A deed was signed in the garden in 1556 indicating that it would have been a pleasant place to relax in.[20] The household diet was further supplemented when a rabbit warren and a doocot were added in 1569.[21] Bishop Patrick Hepburn (1538–73), the last Roman Catholic bishop at Spynie, installed wide-mouth gun loops to boost the castle defences and enlarged some windows.[22] He continued to live at Spynie for a period after the Reformation.
As part of the pacification following the abdication of Queen Mary, Regent Morton, in a meeting of the Privy Council at Perth on 23 February 1573, ordered that the castle be made available to the Crown, if needed:
the hous of Spyne salbe randerit and deliverit to oure Soverane Lord and his Regent foirsaid quhen it salbe requirite on XV dayis warning, without prejudice of ony partiis rycht.[27]
On 29 July 1587, King James VI gave the castle and estate to Alexander Lindsay, 1st Lord Spynie; and they remained in his hands until he surrendered them back to the Crown in December 1605.[28] During this period in 1595, Spynie was one of the castles that had additional fortifications installed as protection against a perceived threat from the Spaniards.
17th century
In 1606, King James restored to the bishopric of Moray the endowments that remained.[29] Bishop John Guthrie, who was a well-known royalist, ceased to be the bishop in 1638 when all bishops were deposed by the general assembly – he and his family continued to live at Spynie however. Guthrie refused to subscribe to the Covenant and prepared the castle for a siege which duly arrived in 1640 in the form of CovenanterCol. Sir Robert Monro and his 800 men.[30]
Interior of David's Tower showing putlog holes for floors and plastered walls
Guthrie surrendered the castle immediately on 16 July and the castle was disarmed, however he was allowed, together with his wife and servants, to stay within the castle. Although under house arrest, Guthrie was forced to pay for the upkeep of the garrison of twenty-four men.[30] In September 1640, Guthrie was imprisoned in Aberdeen on rather dubious accusations. The castle was then granted to the Earl of Moray by King Charles I. Elgin and surrounding areas were staunchly anti-Royalist[31] and after his victory against the Covenanters at Auldearn on 9 May 1645, James Graham, Marquis of Montrose turned his attention towards Elgin. The Laird of Innes and Grant of Ballindalloch and some burgesses from Elgin prepared the castle for a siege.[32] Montrose occupied Elgin and burned the homes of leading Covenanter supporters in the town and the farmyard buildings belonging to Spynie but did not attempt to take the castle.[33] Spynie had become the centre for the Covenanters in the area and this fact had not gone unnoticed by the Royalists. The Marquis of Huntly laid siege to the castle in late 1645 leaving Lord Lewis Gordon in charge but the castle's defences held until it was relieved by John Middleton, the future Earl of Middleton.[34]
Following the restoration of Episcopacy to the Scottish Church in 1662 ownership of the castle passed back to the church, but it was starting to fall into decay. Parliament granted Bishop Murdo MacKenzie £1000 for repairs and this sustained the building up to 1689[35] when the last occupant, Bishop William Hay was expelled after refusing to take an oath of allegiance to King William and Queen Mary.[36] The palace passed into the hands of the Crown and the fine ironwork and wood carvings removed. Local people plundered the walls for stonework for building works until the early 19th century when it passed in the ownership of James Dunbar-Brander of Pitgaveny. It was leased to the Department of the Works in 1974. The tower by that time had a pronounced bulge in the east wall - the structure being undermined by attempts by Covenanters to blow it up.
Major work to stabilise the structure was undertaken during the late 1970s using a large scaffold. Ultimately a curtain wall was reinstated disguising a large concrete plinth that prevents the tower from collapsing. The Palace was finally opened by Historic Scotland in 1994.[37]
Elgin is a town and formerly a royal burgh in Moray, on the North Coast of Scotland. It is the administrative and commercial centre for Moray. The town originated to the south of the River Lossie on the higher ground above the floodplain where the town of Birnie is. There, the church of Birnie Kirk was built in 1140 and serves the community to this day.
Alexander Stewart, Earl of Buchan, called the Wolf of Badenoch, was the third surviving son of King Robert II of Scotland by his first wife Elizabeth Mure. Alexander married the widowed Euphemia I, Countess of Ross, but they had no children. He did have a large family by his longtime mistress, Mairead inghean Eachainn.
Elgin Cathedral is a historic ruin in Elgin, Moray, north-east Scotland. The cathedral, dedicated to the Holy Trinity, was established in 1224 on land granted by King Alexander II outside the burgh of Elgin and close to the River Lossie. It replaced the cathedral at Spynie, 3 kilometres (2 mi) to the north, which was served by a small chapter of eight clerics. By 1226, the new and developing cathedral was staffed with 18 canons increasing to 23 by 1242. A damaging fire in 1270 resulted in a significantly enlarged building. It remained unaffected by the Wars of Scottish Independence, but again suffered extensive fire damage in 1390 when attacked by Robert III's brother Alexander Stewart, Earl of Buchan, also known as the Wolf of Badenoch. In 1402 the cathedral precinct again suffered an incendiary attack by the followers of the Lord of the Isles.
The Bishop of Moray or Bishop of Elgin was the ecclesiastical head of the Diocese of Moray in northern Scotland, one of Scotland's 13 medieval bishoprics. If the foundation charter of the monastery at Scone is reliable, then the Bishopric of Moray was in existence as early as the reign of King Alexander I of Scotland (1107–1124), but was certainly in existence by 1127, when one Gregoir ("Gregorius") is mentioned as "Bishop of Moray" in a charter of king David I of Scotland. The bishopric had its seat at Elgin and Elgin Cathedral, but was severally at Birnie, Kinneddar and as late as Bishop Andreas de Moravia at Spynie, where the bishops continued to maintain a palace. The Bishopric's links with Rome ceased to exist after the Scottish Reformation, but continued, saving temporary abolition between 1638 and 1661, under the episcopal Church of Scotland until the Revolution of 1688. Episcopacy in the established church in Scotland was permanently abolished in 1689. The Bishops fortified seat for over 500 years was at Spynie Palace.
Clan Guthrie is a Scottish clan.
Bricius was prior of Lesmahagow and afterward bishop of Moray.
Andreas de Moravia was a 13th-century Scottish bishop. He was a younger son of Hugh de Moravia, from the family of Flemish origin who were lords of Duffus and other areas in the Greater Moray region in this period. In the time of Bishop Bricius' episcopate (1203–1222), there was a man called "Andreas" who was rector of the church of St. Peter at Duffus, and this may well have been this Andreas. He may also have been a native Scot.
Donald, Lord of the Isles, was the son and successor of John of Islay, Lord of the Isles and chief of Clan Donald. The Lordship of the Isles was based in and around the Scottish west-coast island of Islay, but under Donald's father had come to include most of the isles and the lands of Somerled, the King of the Isles in the 12th century, Donald's predecessor, including Morvern, Garmoran, Lochaber, Kintyre and Knapdale on the mainland.
Freskin was a Flemish nobleman who settled in Scotland during the reign of King David I, becoming the progenitor of the Murray and Sutherland families, and possibly others.
Spynie was a seaport, burgh and ancient parish in Moray, Scotland, that survives as a small hamlet and civil parish. It is the location of the ruins of Spynie Palace, which was the principal residence of the Bishops of Moray between the 12th and 17th centuries, and the churchyard of Holy Trinity Church, Spynie, which served as the cathedral of the Diocese of Moray between 1207 and 1224.
Henry de Lichton [de Lychtone, Leighton] was a medieval Scottish prelate and diplomat, who, serving as Bishop of Moray (1414–1422) and Bishop of Aberdeen (1422–1440), became a significant patron of the church, a cathedral builder, and a writer. He also served King James I of Scotland as a diplomat in England, France, and Italy.
John de Winchester was a 15th-century English cleric who distinguished himself as an administrator and bishop in Scotland. Winchester was a student of canon law from 1418, graduating with a bachelorate in 1421.
Columba de Dunbar was Bishop of Moray from 1422 until his death at Spynie Palace near Elgin sometime before 7 November 1435.
The Diocese of Moray was one of the most important of the medieval dioceses of the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland. Its territory was in central northern Scotland.
Simon de Tosny was a 12th-century Cistercian monk and prelate. Simon was a monk of Melrose Abbey, and served there until he moved to become Abbot of Coggeshall Abbey in Essex. He resigned this abbey in 1168, and returned to Melrose. In 1171, he was elected as Bishop of Moray, and was consecrated at St Andrews on 23 January 1172. He was a distant cousin of King William who may or may not have played some part in his election. His cathedral was at Birnie, Moray. He witnessed several charters and was present at the Council of Northampton in 1176. He is the first bishop named on the bishop-list in the Moray Registrum. He died on 17 September 1184 and was buried in Birnie Kirk. Aside from the brief episcopate of Andrew he was succeeded as bishop by Richard de Lincoln.
William of Douglas was a medieval nobleman living in Clydesdale, an area under the control of the King of the Scots.
Alexander Bur was a 14th-century Scottish cleric. It is highly possible that Bur came from somewhere in or around Aberdeenshire, although that is not certain and is only based on the knowledge that Aberdeenshire is where other people bearing his surname come from in this period. He entered the service of King David II of Scotland sometime after 1343, perhaps as a member of David's exiled court at Château Gaillard. Although Alexander by this point in time already held prebends in both the bishopric of Aberdeen and the bishopric of Dunkeld, on that date King David petitioned Pope Clement VI for another canonry in the bishopric of Moray. Alexander had become a royal clerk and had obtained a Licentiate in Canon Law by 1350. By the latter date, upon the death of Adam Penny, Archdeacon of Moray, Alexander himself became Archdeacon.
Kinneddar is a small settlement on the outskirts of Lossiemouth in Moray, Scotland, near the main entrance to RAF Lossiemouth. Long predating the modern town of Lossiemouth, Kinneddar was a major monastic centre for the Pictish kingdom of Fortriu from the 6th or 7th centuries, and the source of the important collection of Pictish stones called the Drainie Carved Stones. The Kirk of Kinneddar was the cathedral of the Diocese of Moray between 1187 and 1208, and remained an important centre of diocesan administration and residence of the Bishop of Moray through the 13th and 14th centuries.
Holy Trinity Church, Spynie was until 1735 the parish church of Spynie, Moray in north-east Scotland, and served as the cathedral of the Diocese of Moray between 1207 and 1224.
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