Cambo

Cambo House occupies the site of an earlier castle.

In October 1561 William Mortoun of Cambo was one of a group, including Begis Calwart, her brother, Robert Calwart, in Kyngisbernis, and Elizabath Arnot, wife of William Bowsie, baillie of Crail, who were summoned to answer a charge that Begis Calwart “oppinlie injurit, diffamit, and sclanderit” Janet Bowman, wife of William Crostrophyn in Kingisbernis. The accused were ordered to attend the church of Crail on Sunday the 26th of October, confess their crimes, humble themselves on their knees and ask God and the congregation for forgiveness.

Cambo was originally located within the parish of Crail however in 1631 Kingsbarns parish was established as a separate entity from Crail, comprising of “the lands of Pitmillie, Mortoun of Pitmillie, mylnes thairof, Kilduncane, Falsyde, Cuikstoun, Gersmestoun, Kingisbarnes and baronie of Kippo, Cambed, Belches and Mwirhouse, Randerstoun and Newtoun”.

The tower of Cambo is marked on Blaeu’s mid-17th century map of Fife.

In 1668 the Cambo estate was bought by Sir Charles Erskine, Bt., brother of Alexander Erskine, 3rd Earl of Kellie. Sir Alexander Erskine, 5th Earl of Kellie, was forfeited for supporting the Jacobite Rising of 1745 and in 1759 the estate was bought by the Charteris family. In the 1790s Thomas Erskine, 9th Earl of Kellie, bought Cambo and it is still owned by the Erskine family.