Last Family To Live In Duntarvie Castle (Researched By Galen Bartholomew)

A Memory of Duntarvie Castle.

The Bartholomew family was the last family to live in Duntarvie Castle before it became uninhabitable, but, as my cousin, Richard Widdowson, has made some mistakes in relation to dates, I offer the following based on considerable research.
The Bartholomew family had farmed the land known as Greendykes on the Hopetoun Estate since 1623 or thereabouts. This information is contained in the Rent Book given to John Bartholomew (1852-1934) by Lord Hopetoun at the time he surrendered the Lease on Duntarvie Farm in 1932, when the tenancy passed to the Nimmo family.
The Lease on Duntarvie Farm had been taken on by John Bartholomew (1774-1856), in addition to his existing Lease on Greendykes Farm, partly because there was a risk that the shale industry would encroach on the Greendykes land and partly because his family was expanding and becoming a bit more prosperous (by the mid C19 the family is recorded as owning its own steam threshing machine!).
John's son, James Bartholomew (1810-1900), was born in Duntarvie Castle, but John Bartholomew (1852-1934) was born in the farmhouse, built because Duntarvie Castle had become uninhabitable by then.
In 1826, Duntarvie Castle was recorded by the then Lord Hopetoun as "very damp and cold and in urgent need of repair"; it is recorded as having been uninhabited since the 1840s.
From the 1840s, Duntarvie Castle must have deteriorated fast: in his childhood my grandfather, Dr George Bartholomew (1883-1961), used to play in the ruin with his siblings, the roof and upper floors having caved in many years before. His sister, Dr Winifred Rushforth OBE (1885-1983) described all this to me and makes reference to it in her autobiography "Ten Decades of Happenings". Winifred recalled in particular a large inglenook fireplace.
Duntarvie Castle remained roofless and neglected for many years (the windows and doors were bricked up in the interests of Health & Safety) until it was purchased for refurbishment by Geoffrey Nicholsby in the late C20.
After the Bartholomew family moved from Duntarvie Castle to their new farmhouse, thought to have been in about 1840 or not long before, it is unlikely that any other family lived in Duntarvie Castle except, possibly, on a very temporary basis.
The current project to bring this ancient historic structure back into use is very exciting and Mr Nicholsby deserves great credit for undertaking such a massive project.

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