place

Falkland Palace Royal Tennis Club

1975 establishments in ScotlandFalkland, FifeReal tennis venuesSports venues in FifeTennis clubs
Falkland Palace tennis court
Falkland Palace tennis court

The Falkland Palace Royal Tennis Club (also previously called the Falkland Palace Real Tennis Club) organizes play at the real tennis court in the gardens of Falkland Palace, Fife, Scotland. Built for James V of Scotland, court construction began in April 1539 and ended in late 1541. It is the oldest tennis court in use today, though not continuously used since 1541. The court differs from other real tennis courts in two respects. It is the only active real tennis court without a roof (one on Lambay Island requires restoration). Secondly, it is the only surviving example of jeu quarré design, other courts being the jeu à dedans type. The Falkland Palace court is larger than a lawn tennis court, and has four walls. Two of those walls feature penthouses, and unlike jeu à dedans courts lacks a tambour and dedans. It has five additional point-scoring features: four openings (lunes) in one wall and a vertical board (ais). The playing floor is 97 feet 4 inches (29.67 m) by 33 feet 5 inches (10.19 m). Today's club was formed in 1975. In 1989 the club celebrated the court's 450th anniversary with a tournament, for which a temporary roof was constructed. It did not rain that week. The club also published a book, The Royal Game. Currently, it is Scotland's only real tennis club, although a court in Troon may reopen.

Excerpt from the Wikipedia article Falkland Palace Royal Tennis Club (License: CC BY-SA 3.0, Authors, Images).

Falkland Palace Royal Tennis Club
New Road,

Geographical coordinates (GPS) Address Nearby Places
placeShow on map

Wikipedia: Falkland Palace Royal Tennis ClubContinue reading on Wikipedia

Geographical coordinates (GPS)

Latitude Longitude
N 56.255277777778 ° E -3.2058333333333 °
placeShow on map

Address

New Road
KY15 7DB
Scotland, United Kingdom
mapOpen on Google Maps

Falkland Palace tennis court
Falkland Palace tennis court
Share experience

Nearby Places

Freuchie
Freuchie

Freuchie is a village in Fife, Scotland, at the foot of the Lomond Hills, and near Falkland. The nearest major town is Glenrothes located 4 miles to the south. The name derives from the Scottish Gaelic, fraoch, meaning heather. This Fife village is not to be confused with the old location of the same name in Morayshire (now in the Highland Council Area) upon which the new town of Grantown was built in the 18th century. Freuchie was once used by the Royal family as a place of banishment from the Court when it was in nearby Falkland Palace. The Scots sayings "Awa tae Freuchie where the froggies bide" and "awa tae Freuchie an eat mice" both make reference to the village, these insults would be directed at prisoners of the Stuart kings residing in Falkland Palace, 2 miles to the west, prisoners would be held in the village awaiting execution. Another aphoristic usage occurs in the phrase "as Scots as Freuchie", although whether this might ultimately stem from the Morayshire location is not certain. Freuchie Cricket Club is best known for having won the village cricket championships at Lord's in 1985. This is considered particularly unusual as Scottish teams are not generally prominent in the game.On 13 August 2008, a number of locations throughout the village were affected by flooding, resulting in damage to homes and cars being written off by insurance companies. Many of the affected residents came together to form Freuchie Flood Action Group, a single action group dedicated to improving flood protection and prevention in Freuchie.