Thirdpart

Thirdpart is the site of a castle of which nothing now remains on site.

In 1488 the lands of Caiplie were split into two unequal parts, the upper or over and the lower or nether. The upper third, known as Over Caiplie, were held by the Inglis of Inglistarvit family. From the 16th century the lands of Over Caiplie were referred to as the Thirdpart of Caiplie.

During the reign of Robert III, in the late 14th or early 15th century, the laird of Thirdpart is said to have been involved in a conflict with Sir William Anstruther of Anstruther, although another version of the story states that Anstruther’s dispute was with Sir Neil Cunningham of Barns.

Sir William Anstruther and his daughter, Margaret, resided at Dreel Castle in Anstruther at the time, his son being at the court of Robert. Margaret is said to have fallen in love with the 22 year old Patrick Home, son of Earl of Home, whose ancestor had supposedly killed Sir William’s grandfather on the Firth of Forth. However the laird of Thirdpart seems to have had intentions regarding Margaret of which Sir William did not approve leading him to insult the laird. This prompted the laird to devise a plot to kill his neighbour.

The laird invited Sir William and Margaret to Thirdpart but a wandering beggar got wind of the plan and informed Sir William who then invited the laird to Dreel instead. When he arrived Sir William hit him over the head with an axe and killed him. Sir William vowed to repay the beggar’s kindness in warning him of the danger and did so by offering his daughter’s hand in marriage, at which point the beggar is supposed to have cast off his disguise to reveal himself to be Patrick Home.

Thirdpart was acquired in 1611 by the Scott family, later of Scotstarvit. In February 1619 the James VI granted to John Scott of Scottistarvet the “decimas garbales et vicarias decimas” lands of Over Caplie alias Thridpairt, the town and lands of Nethir Caplie with the mill and mill lands, and the town and lands of Eister Pitcorthie, which the Earl of Mar had resigned with the consent of William Barclay de Innergillie.

In the 1620s the poet William Drummond of Hawthornden wrote a humorous poem entitled Polemo-Middinia about a dispute over access rights between the Scotts of Thirdpart and their neighbours the Cunninghams of Barns. In the poem the Lady Anne Scott and Lady Cunningham egg on their servants and retainers in a fight between the two parties. Drummond was engaged to Cunningham’s daughter and his sister, Anne, was married to Sir John Scott.

In 1987 two architectural fragments of stone were found during archaeological field work at Thirdpart. One stone was the apex of a pediment decorated with chevrons in relief with opposing edge-scrolls while the other was from the left side of a carved heraldic panel and included the letter H, part of a coat of arms, a rosette and part of a scroll. Both had formerly been built into the steading at Thirdpart Farm (NO 589 067), now demolished, and are now located in Crail Museum (accession numbers 1987: 41 and 1987: 42).