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Photo: Stephencdickson, CC BY-SA 4.0 via Wikimedia Commons
This is a fun palace with a dark history, built in the 12th century but taking its present Renaissance style from 1500. It was primarily a hunting lodge, and all sorts of royal amusements and spectacles were staged here. Yet the 15th-century Duke of Rothesay was starved to death in it, the young James V was held hostage but escaped, and raiders tried to break in and capture James VI. Nevertheless Mary of Queen of Scots and other Stuart nobles enjoyed staying here. It was less visited once the monarchy moved to England, and a fire during Cromwellian occupation wrecked it. The south wing remains standing, with the royal chapel, the east wing is ruined. The main attraction, apart from the MQoS associations, are the extensive gardens. These also contain the "real tennis" court of 1539 - "real" as in royal, the ancestor of lawn tennis, and the world's oldest tennis court still in use.
Falkland Palace, in Falkland, Fife, Scotland, is a royal palace of the Scottish kings. It was one of the favourite places of Mary, Queen of Scots, who took refuge there from political and religious turmoil of her times.
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Extensive gardens in a former royal hunting ground.
The keep is from the 14th century and has been restored, so later additions are the worse ruined. They've tried to promote it as a paranormal experience but in 2021 it's closed, even to poltergeist.