Newark Castle St Monans

Newark Castle is an unusual castle occupying a promontory jutting into the Forth of Forth on the Fife coast. Consisting of an L-shaped tower house with a long narrow courtyard on the sea side, the buildings are in ruins and behind safety fencing – and are clearly visible from the coastal path from St Monans that passes nearby.

The castle may have been founded in the 15th century, but if so it was extensively remodelled in the early 16th with the addition of the tower house, and heightened in the 17th. The early history is obscure and it may have been a property of the earls of Fife, but much of the castle was definitely built by the Sandilands family of Calder prior to 1649 when they sold Newark to David Leslie, later Lord Newark. Final attempts to alter the castle in the 19th century led to a partial collapse made worse over time by cliff erosion, which makes the site unsafe. Nevertheless it is worth a pleasant coastal walk to take a look at!

HES Canmore database entry

Detailed architectural assessment on Electric Scotland website