Burleigh Castle

Burleigh Castle stands in ruin near Milnathort in Kinross-shire, a Balfour stronghold whose oldest part rose in the late fifteenth or early sixteenth century. The lands had passed to John Balfour of Balgarvie in 1456, granted by James II, and the family raised the original tower house here — three storeys and a garret behind walls some five feet thick. Late in the sixteenth century Sir James Balfour extended the site, adding a south-west corner tower that begins round at its base and is corbelled out to a square upper storey, linked to the older tower by a curtain wall with an arched gateway. Gun loops and pistol-holes betray its defensive purpose, and the initials IB and MB survive on the north gable. The castle drew royalty: Mary of Guise dined here in January 1540, and James VI called several times in the 1580s and 1590s. In 1607 Michael Balfour was raised to the peerage as Lord Balfour of Burleigh. The line’s later fortunes turned darker — the fifth Lord fled execution for murder, joined the Jacobite cause, and died in exile in France in 1757. Today the roofless walls stand as a scheduled monument in the care of Historic Environment Scotland.