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Tulliallan (Gaelic tulach-aluinn, 'Beautiful knoll') was an estate in Perthshire, Scotland, near to Kincardine, and a parish. The Clan Blackadder of Tulliallan, a branch of the Blackadder border clan, wielded considerable power in the 15th and 16th centuries. The modern Tulliallan Castle is relatively recent, built in 1812-1820 and now the home of the Scottish Police College
The parish is bounded on the west and north by Clackmannan, on the east by Culross and on the south by the River Forth. It is from north to south and from east to west, and contains . In 1885, were foreshore and water. The parish slopes gently southward to the Forth from a height of Between 1823 and 1839 a large area of land was recovered from the tidal waters of the Forth by two large embankments. The 1885 description said about was wooded and almost all the rest cultivated. High-quality sandstone had been quarried near Longannet for many years. The land was also rich in coal and ironstone.
At the last census (2011), the population of the civil parish was 3,001.Census of Scotland 2011, Table KS101SC – Usually Resident Population, publ. by National Records of Scotland, web site www.scotlandscensus.gov.uk - See "Standard Outputs", Table KS101SC, Area type: Civil Parish Retrieved April 2021. The area of the parish is 3,685 acres.Census of Scotland 1931. Preliminary Report. Table 17 - Population and Acreage of Civil Parishes alphabetically arranged. Publ. H.M.S.O. 1931 Tulliallan parish is also a Community Council area under the name Kincardine, with some variations in the boundary with Culross, its neighbouring civil parish and community council to the east.Community Councils website of the Scottish Government - www.communitycouncils.scot/community-council-finder Retrieved May 2021
The Douglas castle was initially an L-shaped two-storey building of ashlar masonry, with a tower at the southwest corner holding the main entrance, which was reached by a drawbridge. Most of the ground floor had small, square windows, while there were large slits above. The interior was unusual in that there were important rooms on the ground floor. The ceilings of these rooms included ribbed vaults springing from octagonal piers. The house was extended in the fifteenth century, and a major reconstruction seems to have been undertaken in the late sixteenth century.
The castle was surrounded by a moat, which would have been filled by water from the Firth of Forth, which in the old days extended further inland. An 1853 account of the then-ruined building said "two narrow posterns open from each end of the southern front, of which that on the east opens into an apartment which has been termed the great hall, where three compartments are curiously formed by elegant groined arches, which rest upon a central octagonal column, the whole being in a state of remarkable preservation. In 1885 the old castle, although ruined, was still described as an imposing-looking edifice.
A noted member of the Blackadder family of Tulliallan was Robert Blackadder, brother of Patrick Blackadder, Laird of Tulliallan. Robert Blackadder was Bishop of Aberdeen, Bishop of Glasgow from 1484 and then in 1492 the first Archbishop of Glasgow, who added the eponymous crypt and aisle in Glasgow Cathedral. The bishop sided with rebel nobles who defeated and killed King James III of Scotland in 1488 at the Battle of Sauchieburn. The archbishop died while on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land in 1508.
One of the Lairds of Tulliallan, Sir John Blackadder, was beheaded in March 1531 for the murder of James Inglis, Abbot of Culross, in a dispute over land. He was succeeded at Tulliallan by his brother Patrick, who renewed a dispute against the Homes for the Blackadder family lands around Allanton in Berwickshire. Patrick was murdered in an ambush near Edinburgh, where he was to meet the Homes to try to resolve their differences. Following this the Blackadders made no further attempts to recover their ancestral estates. William Blackadder was among the supporters of Mary, Queen of Scots at the Battle of Carberry Hill (15 June 1567). He was arrested soon after and hanged in June, and his brother was hanged in September.
The last Blackadder to own Tulliallan was Sir John, born in 1596 and on 18 July 1626 created a knight baronet of Nova Scotia by King Charles I of England. His estate, with lime works, salt pans and other enterprises, yielded an income of 36,000 merks annually, but this was not enough to satisfy Sir John's expensive habits and he ran up debts far beyond his ability to pay. When his effects were seized he fled to the continent, and in 1642 seems to have been in the French service. He died in America in 1651. Sir John's wife, Elizabeth Graham, was the daughter of the Earl of Menteith. She had an annuity of 360 merks, and lived at Tulliallan until 1662. His son, Alexander, could not free the estate from the burden of debts that his father had contracted. The Court of Session ordered a judicial sale. In 1700 the estate was purchased by Colonel John Erskine, son of David Erskine, 4th Lord Cardross.
The celebrated covenanting preacher John Blackadder (1622-1685) was legally the heir to the Blackadder baronetcy, but did not claim the title.
The modern-day Tulliallan Castle is about a half mile to the southeast of the old castle, built in 1818-1820 for Lord Viscount Keith. The building was acquired by the Mitchell family in 1924. During the World War II it was the headquarters of the Polish Armed Forces in the West. It has been the home of the Scottish Police College since 1954 and was the temporary headquarters of Police Scotland upon its creation in 2013.
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