by MacDuff » 04 Mar 2007, 23:46
I'm flattered that my "name" should invoke such interest :oops: Yes, one MacDuff sold the hunting lodge at Falkland in Fife to James IV subsequently James I of England. The lodge became Falkland Palace and is well worth a visit - National Trust of Scotland. Best food in Falkland is just across the road at an Italian restaurant. Its a nice drive to Anstruther where lies the best fish and chip shop in Scotland, the Anstruther Fish Bar - take the haddock! :) My eldest daughter with husband and two of my grandchildren lives on the High Street in Falkland. Yes, Duff House was designed by William Adam. If you look carefully at the facade, there is a substantial vertical crack beside the left tower. One of the Fife's married a daughter of Queen Vickie. The beautiful River Deveron skirts the grounds and about three miles upstream is the 17th century Bridge of Alvah. BUT. although Duff House is in Banff, just across the Deveron lies MACDUFF. The two towns are separated only by a bridge. Finally - you hope- :o Prior to Duff House, William Adam built Haddo House, Aberdeenshire seat of the Gordons (Marquess of Aberdeen) It is a somewhat more attractive building completed about 1730. Robert Adam the son, designed and built his first large house in 1762 - in Kent, Mersham-le-Hatch owned by the Knatchbull family. Now, for Ozzie Geoff's interest, the first invocation of the MacNaughton rules (Criminal insanity) were invoked in 1738 in Sydney Australia when one Knatchbull was tried for mudering his ozzie landlady with an axe! The plea did not work and Knatchbull was subjected to a public hanging outside Sydney Goal. :? :o :evil: 8-) :( . Trivia is interesting stuff :geek: