Balfour Castle Kirriemuir

Balfour Castle Kirriemuir Details

Balfour Castle, Kirriemuir, a single tower survives intact from mostly demolished ?C15 Ogilvie castle

  • Closest To: Kingoldrum,Kirriemuir
  • Access: No Access
  • Grid Reference: NO337546

A single round tower with sloping roof built into a later farmhouse is all that remains of Balfour Castle, a modest tower house overlooking the Cromie Burn west of Kirriemuir.

The tower, six storeys high, has a vaulted basement with wide splayed gun ports, and the adjacent walls were about 2.5 metres thick, which is notably more massive than we might expect for a tower house of the mid to late 16th century. The upper windows are also tiny slits, again suggesting an earlier date. TheĀ  footings could be traced for 10 metres or so in the 19th century, and may be representative of a great tower of some sort.

Balfour was granted to Arbroath Abbey by Alan Durward in 1253, and the Abbey had subleased it to the Ogilvie family by 1478. In 1539, David Beaton as Commendator of Arbroath granted Balfour to James Ogilvie of Cookstone and his spouse Marjory Durie, and this family of Ogilvies retained Balfour thereafter. James and his wife had held tacks of Balfour from 1520, and so were standing tenants of the Abbey. Although there is a tradition associating Cardinal Beaton’s wife with this property, Marjorie Durie was his cousin, born a Beaton of Balfour. The question of tacks, too is more complex, with Oliver Ogilvie holding a tack of Balfour prior to 1520.

The castle can easily be seen from the road, but the farm is a private residence so other access is not possible.

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