Located high above the historic village of Culross, Dunimarle Castle lay empty for many years.
The castle was said to be a dwelling of the Macduff’s, the royal representatives, of Fife.
In 1840, a new castle was constructed alongside the remains of the original building.
It lies by the ruins of its medieval precursor.
But it was transformed 12 years ago when it and the 52-acre estate was bought by Surrey-based businessman Salim Mohamed.
He turned the castle into a holiday home for his family.
‘I saw the potential of Fife castle’
Its day-to-day running is left to estate manager George Fleming, who also lives on the site.
Mr Fleming has worked at Dunimarle since 2018 and has been instrumental in introducing a number of changes.
He said: “I saw the potential here. I put it to the owner about opening to the public to let them see the gardens, and he was on board with that.
“I researched the history and started putting tours together.
“Next, I was doing events and then – we’ve got a chapel – so we’re able to do weddings.”
The most recent investment in the estate has been the creation of the oangery café.
It has been a difficult project, with Covid among the issues they’ve had to contend with, but it’s almost ready to open.
“It has taken a couple of years but we hope it will open in the next few months,” Mr Fleming said.
Once that is complete, there are plans to renovate two rooms in the castle to become a bridal suite.
“We hope that will add to the wedding package.”
It ‘doesn’t suit everyone’ as wedding venue
Mr Fleming was keen to stress the venue does not seek to be a one-stop wedding venue. It only offers ceremonies presently.
He said: “Hopefully we can incorporate the café and in time we’ll have the bridal suite to go with that.
“We don’t want to be doing weddings every single weekend.
“I’d rather we had a balance of doing tours, being open to the public and being quite relaxed, while if we do the odd wedding, that’s great.
“We get a lot of enquiries about weddings but I think people want to come to the venue, get married and have their reception in the one place.
“We don’t offer that, so it doesn’t suit everyone. That’s fine for us because we don’t want to be a wedding business.”
Future plans for Fife castle
Once the café is completed, Mr Fleming is keen to continue developing the site.
“I’ve got so many ideas for the place.
“It’s just finding the time to jump on to them because I’m doing everything here. It’s great having that freedom.”
Mr Fleming has had support in accounting and HR, financial forecasting and planning from Business Gateway Fife.
Senior business adviser Fraser McKee said: “The castle and gardens are significant assets to the historic Culross area and its tourism so it’s important that they are given the opportunity to flourish to put them on the map as another excellent visitor attraction.”
Conversation