Penick

The lands of Penick, just east of Auldearn, were, at a very early period, devoted to the Church. They appear to have been given originally to the Benedictine (Royal) Abbey of Dunfermline as a part of the endowment it received either on, or soon after, its foundation in 1128.⁵ The Abbey gave them to their daughter house at Urquhard when it was founded in 1136. These lands were carried by the Urquhard community to the new Benedictine house formed when Urquhard and Pluscarden priories were united and, latterly, they became the property of the Deans of Moray. South-east of Inshoch is the House of Penick (Penick Castle), sometime seat of the Deans of Moray. It was built either by Dean Alexander Dunbar Snr. (1525-1549) or by his son who was also called Alexander and was Dean of Moray (1566-1593). After the Second Reformation (1560) Penick was occupied by the Dunbars of Grange, till about 1680, when they sold Penick to the Laird of Brodie, and removed themselves to their castle at Burgie [NGR NJ 094593]. Shaw, writing in 1775, describes Penick as, "a commodius old house of three stories which, though for some time uninhabited, is in pretty good repair."¹

The following is given as the Dean's rental in the year 1561 -

In addition to the victuals shown in the table above, the Dean also received:

At a slightly later date, but still just after the Second Reformation, we have another 'return' in which the lands of Foynesfield [NGR NH 892537] appear as part of the Deanery lands, and were let for £3 13s. 4d. Also, we have, "a quarter mairt, 2 bolls of dry multure, 2 bolls of custom oats, and 2 horse days' work in harvest." We are told that, just after the Second Reformation, "there was at that time a great stone house biggit upon the lands of Bothill," which was set separately for 6s. 4d.; and "there was also a great new stone house biggit upon the lands of Boathill," which, with "a fourth part of the town and lands of Little Penick and brewlands thereof in the barony of Penick and Regality of Spynie." ³ The Dean is seen to be a man of considerable substance with substantial wealth at his personal disposal. His estate of Penick was certainly on a par with those of other local lairds such as Lochloy.

It seems highly unlikely that there was not a chapel somewhere within the Dean's residence.

Ross (2006) says that, "the medieval bishops of Moray also probably possessed two dabhaichean in this parish - Penick and Fleenas, both of which were included in the Regality of Spynie in the early seventeenth-century."² I would suggest that although it was within the Regality of Spynie, Penick was held of the Bishop by the Dean as part of the latter's prebend.

Although not a trace of the house has been found on the ground there is a field which is still called "Castle Penick."