Balvaird Castle is a particularly fine and complete example of a traditional late medieval Scottish tower house

Tower house

A tower house is a particular type of stone structure, built for defensive purposes as well as habitation.-History:Tower houses began to appear in the Middle Ages, especially in mountain or limited access areas, in order to command and defend strategic points with reduced forces...

, built around the year 1500 for Sir Andrew Murray, a younger son of the family of Murray of Tullibardine. He acquired the lands of Balvaird in Perthshire

Perthshire

Perthshire, officially the County of Perth , is a registration county in central Scotland. It extends from Strathmore in the east, to the Pass of Drumochter in the north, Rannoch Moor and Ben Lui in the west, and Aberfoyle in the south...

 through marriage to the heiress Margaret Barclay, a member of a wealthy family. It is likely that Balvaird Castle was built on the site of an earlier Barclay family castle. Substantial remnants of earthwork fortifications around the Castle may survive from earlier defences.

Additions and later history

Over the years the castle was extended and altered. A gatehouse

Gatehouse

A gatehouse, in architectural terminology, is a building enclosing or accompanying a gateway for a castle, manor house, fort, town or similar buildings of importance.-History:...

 was built in 1567. An outer courtyard was attached to the main gate which possibly contained stabling as well as adding an extra layer of defence to the castle. Another courtyard to the south was a garden, while a much larger walled area to the north-east was an orchard

Orchard

An orchard is an intentional planting of trees or shrubs that is maintained for food production. Orchards comprise fruit or nut-producing trees which are grown for commercial production. Orchards are also sometimes a feature of large gardens, where they serve an aesthetic as well as a productive...

 or 'pleasance.'

The family continued to live at Balvaird until they inherited the Earldom of Mansfield

Earl of Mansfield and Mansfield

Earl of Mansfield, in the County of Nottingham, and Earl of Mansfield, of Caen Wood in the County of Middlesex, are two titles in the Peerage of Great Britain that have been united under a single holder since 1843...

 and in 1658 moved to the rather more comfortable Scone Palace

Scone Palace

Scone Palace is a Category A listed historic house at Scone, Perthshire, Scotland. It was constructed in 1808 for the Earls of Mansfield by William Atkinson...

, near Perth

Perth, Scotland

Perth is a town and former city and royal burgh in central Scotland. Located on the banks of the River Tay, it is the administrative centre of Perth and Kinross council area and the historic county town of Perthshire...

. Thereafter the Castle continued to be inhabited, though not by the family itself. In its later days, it probably accommodated farm workers.

The Castle was restored and partially excavated in recent years by Historic Scotland

Historic Scotland

Historic Scotland is an executive agency of the Scottish Government, responsible for historic monuments in Scotland.-Role:As its website states:...

, by whom it is maintained. The site is open at all times, but the tower-house itself can only be visited on a restricted number of days every year.

Balvaird is notable among Scottish castles of its date for its refined architectural detail. Features include corbels in the form of carved heads supporting the corner-roundels of the wall-walk, an unusually elaborate aumbry (wall-cupboard) in the first-floor hall and a cap-house above the stair in the form of a miniature tower-house. It has been suggested that some or all of these carved stone features may have been brought to Balvaird for re-use from an ecclesiastical building.

Balvaird is Baile a' Bhàird, 'Township of the Bard' in Gaelic

Scottish Gaelic language

Scottish Gaelic is a Celtic language native to Scotland. A member of the Goidelic branch of the Celtic languages, Scottish Gaelic, like Modern Irish and Manx, developed out of Middle Irish, and thus descends ultimately from Primitive Irish....

.

External links

• Excavations at Balvaird Castle
• Balvaird Castle - Dark Isle
• Balvaird Castle - Undiscovered Scotland