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Earlshall

Leuchars, Fife - NO 465211- NMRS - RCAMS

Not in the section of the garden that is open to the public. Instead it is on the small lawn through the main gatehouse.

'Cube with hollows, pyramid capping and ball finial on a chamfered shaft. C19 copy of a C17 original' RCAMS

The ball is missing and the top is broken. It has oversized gnomons that unusually are fixed outside the hollows and the lines are marked on the surroundings rather than the hollows. This strangeness is possibly due to the inexperience of the nineteenth century carvers rather than being necessarily true of the seventeenth century version.

Visited 15 Sept 1985 - A. R. Somerville

Visited 29 Aug 2004 - Author

I thought this would be fairly easy trip to make. I was staying in St Andrews and so Leuchars was just a short bus ride away. The gardens of Earlshall are open to the public so there should have been no need to jump over fences or to try and evade notice. It should have all been so easy.........

In the end a sunny day turned into one of those windy, sunny but showery days that makes summer in Scotland so exciting. The walk from the bus stop in Leuchars is an interesting one. If you ever go then you must go to the incredible romanesque church in Leuchars. It is the finest in Scotland. However, the day I went the door was locked so I asked at the butchers. A customer there directed me to an old man who lived in a house at the other end of the town saying that he had the key. Once I had found him he directed me to another old man who lived in some sheltered housing near the church. Thankfully he had the key and let me in as I had had enough of scaring old folks in their homes. It was worth it though.

Earlshall Castle is surrounded by Leuchars airbase. One of the main RAF bases in Scotland. The garden is right next to where the Tornados open up their afterburners for take-off. It's rather noisy.

The garden at Earlshall is closed to the public except for one afternoon a week! However, when i got there on the allotted day it was firmly shut and no ringing of the gatehous bell could open the gates for me. Thirty minutes dithering later i crept through the door in the gate just as the sun was coming out. The dial lay ahead........

Just as I finished photographing the dial I was spotted by the owner who raced down out of the castle in a Bentley collectors T-shirt (a rather select club). He was very nice, apologised and opened up the gardens for me. The gardener must have been in his 80's or 90's as he had started being the gardener in the 1930's. He told me all about the planes from biplanes to jets that used to fly out of the base. An interesting old character.

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	Leuchars, Fife - NO 465211- NMRS - RCAMS Not in the section of the garden that is open to the public. Instead it is on the small lawn through the main gatehouse. 'Cube with hollows, pyramid capping and ball finial on a chamfered shaft. C19 copy of a C17 original' RCAMS The ball is missing and the top is broken. It has oversized gnomons that unusually are fixed outside the hollows and the lines are marked on the surroundings rather than the hollows. This strangeness is possibly due to the inexperience of the nineteenth century carvers rather than being necessarily true of the seventeenth century version. Visited 15 Sept 1985 - A. R. Somerville Visited 29 Aug 2004 - Author


	I thought this would be fairly easy trip to make. I was staying in St Andrews and so Leuchars was just a short bus ride away. The gardens of Earlshall are open to the public so there should have been no need to jump over fences or to try and evade notice. It should have all been so easy......... In the end a sunny day turned into one of those windy, sunny but showery days that makes summer in Scotland so exciting. The walk from the bus stop in Leuchars is an interesting one. If you ever go then you must go to the incredible romanesque church in Leuchars. It is the finest in Scotland. However, the day I went the door was locked so I asked at the butchers. A customer there directed me to an old man who lived in a house at the other end of the town saying that he had the key. Once I had found him he directed me to another old man who lived in some sheltered housing near the church. Thankfully he had the key and let me in as I had had enough of scaring old folks in their homes. It was worth it though. Earlshall Castle is surrounded by Leuchars airbase. One of the main RAF bases in Scotland. The garden is right next to where the Tornados open up their afterburners for take-off. It's rather noisy. The garden at Earlshall is closed to the public except for one afternoon a week! However, when i got there on the allotted day it was firmly shut and no ringing of the gatehous bell could open the gates for me. Thirty minutes dithering later i crept through the door in the gate just as the sun was coming out. The dial lay ahead........ Just as I finished photographing the dial I was spotted by the owner who raced down out of the castle in a Bentley collectors T-shirt (a rather select club). He was very nice, apologised and opened up the gardens for me. The gardener must have been in his 80's or 90's as he had started being the gardener in the 1930's. He told me all about the planes from biplanes to jets that used to fly out of the base. An interesting old character.