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West facade of Burleigh Castle ruins. The original tower house is on the left.

The remains of Burleigh Castle are located just outside the village of Milnathort, 1.5 miles north of Kinross, in Perth and Kinross, Scotland. The castle dates from the 15th century, and now sits beside the A911 road, opposite a 19th century steading.

The lands of Burleigh were held by the Balfours from 1446, when they were granted by James II to John Balfour of Balgarvie, and a tower house was erected in the late 15th or early 16th century. Sir James Balfour of Pittendreich extended the castle in the late 16th century, adding a curtain wall with a corner tower, and other outbuildings. In 1607 his son Sir Michael Balfour was raised to the peerage as Lord Balfour of Burleigh.

Legend tells how Robert Balfour, before his accession as 5th Lord, narrowly escaped death when, in 1707, he was sentenced to beheading for the murder of the schoolmaster of Inverkeithing, who had the misfortune to have married Balfour's childhood sweetheart. Escaping from Edinburgh tolbooth, Balfour joined the Jacobite cause, proclaiming the 'Old Pretender' James Stuart king at Lochmaben, and fighting in the 1715 rising. Following the defeat of the Jacobites, Balfour was attainted, dying in France in 1757.

The castle was forfeit to the Irwins, then passed to the Grahams of Kinross. It is now a Scheduled Ancient Monument in the care of Historic Scotland.

South-west tower of Burleigh Castle

The remains of the castle comprise the western part of what was once a square courtyard or barmkin. In the north-west corner, the original tower house survives largely intact to 4 storeys. The five-foot thick walls rise to corbels, which once supported a parapet walk. The roof and internal floors are now gone, although the vaulted basement remains. The turnpike stair in the north-east corner originally led up to a caphouse giving access to the parapet walk.

To the south west is a later tower, three storeys high and still roofed. Unusually, the tower is round at the base, and corbelled out to a square upper storey. Both the tower and the keep have gun loops around the base. Engraved on the north gable is the date 1582, and the initials SIB and MB, for Sir James Balfour and his wife Margaret. The two are connected by a section of curtain wall containing an arched gate. A moat may have surrounded the barmkin in the past.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Burleigh Castle

• Burleigh Castle - site information from Historic Scotland

• Coventry, Martin The Castles of Scotland (3rd Edition), Goblinshead, 2001
• Lindsay, Maurice The Castles of Scotland, Constable & Co. 1986

• Historic Scotland Listed Building Report [1]
• National Monuments Record of Scotland Site Reference NO10SW 1.0 [2]