Ballinbreich Castle

Ballinbreich Castle is a ruined tower house castle in Fife, Scotland.

Ballinbreich Castle
Ballinbreich Castle
Coordinates56.371177°N 3.180184°W / 56.371177; -3.180184
Site information
ConditionRuined
Site history
Built14th-16th century
Built byClan Leslie

The castle was built in the 14th century by Clan Leslie, and subsequently rebuilt several times. There may have been an outer curtain-wall though this no longer survives. Much of the present structure is of 16th-century date. It is a three-storey L-plan castle and overlooks the Firth of Tay.[1] Ballinbreich is a scheduled monument.[2] It was a home of the Leslie family, Earl of Rothes.

Early maps of the castle by Timothy Pont and John Adair at the National Library of Scotland show the castle within a curving wall or earth bank. From the air, two curving enclosures can be seen, the crop mark remains of ditches. The inner area was probably the 16th-century garden, and rectilinear crop marks within the larger enclosure may have been later garden features.[3]

Mary, Queen of Scots stayed at the castle on 23 March 1563 and 26 January 1565.[4] Regent Morton made a progress in September 1575. He came to Ballinbreich from Tullibardine and went on to Huntingtower Castle to the christening of James Ruthven, 2nd Earl of Gowrie.[5] James VI visited from Falkland Palace on 18 June 1583 then went on to Carnie, belonging to Sir Robert Melville.[6]

References
  1. "Ballinbreich Castle". Canmore. Historic Environment Scotland. Retrieved 31 August 2017.
  2. Historic Environment Scotland. "Ballinbreich Castle (SM844)". Retrieved 11 April 2019.
  3. Marilyn Brown, Scotland's Lost Gardens (RCAHMS, Edinburgh, 2012), pp. 112-3.
  4. Edward Furgol, 'Scottish Itinerary of Mary Queen of Scots, 1542-8 and 1561-8', PSAS, 117 (1987), microfiche, scanned
  5. Calendar State Papers Scotland: 1574-1581, vol. 5 (Edinburgh, 1907), p. 197 no. 202.
  6. William Boyd, Calendar of State Papers Scotland: 1581-1583, vol. 6 (Edinburgh, 1910), p. 506.


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