Balvenie, an ancient castle in Mortlach parish, Banffshire, on the left bank of the Fiddich, a little below the influx of the Dullan, 5 furlongs N of Dufftown. It crowns a beautiful wooded knoll, and commands a rich though limited range of charming scenery. Uninhabited more than a century, it now is merely a well-preserved shell, which retains, however, its original architectural features. It is of various dates, large, massive, and very magnificent. The oldest part is traditionally called a Pictish tower, but the general characteristics are those of the Scottish Baronial style. It belonged to successively the Comyns, the Douglases, the Stuarts, and the Inneses (1615), and it is now the property of the Earl of Fife. The motto of the Stuarts, Earls of Athole, 'Fvrth. Fortvin. And. Fil. thi. Feitris, ' is inscribed on its front, high over a massive iron gate. A member of the house of Donglas, in the 15th century, took from it the title of Lord Balvenie; and a member of the house of Innes in 1628 was created a baronet of Nova Scotia, under the title of Sir Robert Innes of Balvenie. Two views of it are given in Billings' Baronial Antiquities (1852). The ' new Castle of Balvenie, ' 1½ mile N of Dufftown, is a large, white, mill-like edifice (c. 1765), in good repair, but long untenanted.
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