Monimail, Fife - NO 299138 - Gatty 157 - Ross 444

This was an amazing prism dial that was surely related to the dial at Holyrood, Edinburgh and/or Invermay, Perthshire.

It was dated 1697 and was brought from Balgonie Castle in 1862. Unfortunately because it was used for target practice by soldiers during the Second World War Somerville reported only a fragment of it remaining in the cellar of the house which was a school for delinquents when he visited.

Currently the house is on the market for £4,500,000 which I think is a bargain even though it is slightly out of my price range. Despite the recent restoration of the house it did not include the sundial which is unfortunate as it is the centrepiece of a skilled if slightly heavy composition.

Visited 25 May 1981 - A. R. Somerville

Visited 12 May 2006 - Author

 

 

Before I visited this Melville House I was assured by the estate agent that the house had been fully restored including the sundial. Despite not being totally confident off I went to find out. There was just a bare plinth sitting in the centre of the bare garden. What a shame.

Interestingly while monumental sundials may be a past garden fashion, Melville now has the latest fashion in garden ornament - a tree house! It was very similar to the rather fun tree house restaurant at Alnwick Castle. If only they had spent the money on restoring the sundial I kept thinking but then in a few hundred years time there will probably be someone travelling around Scotland seeing tree houses.

Apparently there is a photograph of the dial in 'Shrines & Homes of Scotland' by Sir J Stirling Maxwell, 1937, just a few years before it was destroyed. I will have to try and find it.