Balcomie Castle

Balcomie Castle
©2022 Gazetteer for Scotland

Balcomie Castle

The late 16th-century castle of Balcomie, with its five-storey tower, ranges and walled garden, is located 1½ miles (2.5 km) northeast of Crail. The castle stands within a complex that includes a 19th-century mansion and farmstead. Recorded as belonging to the Hays in 1278 and 1375, James Learmonth was given the lands of Balcomie in 1526. The gatehouse bears the date 1602 and the arms of another John Learmonth and his wife Elizabeth Myreton. The castle passed to Sir William Hope in 1705, and then successively to the Scotts of Scotstarvit and the Erskine Earls of Kellie, who demolished some of the old buildings in the early 19th C.

It was at Balcomie that Mary of Guise was welcomed in June 1538 when she landed in Scotland on her way to marry King James V at St Andrews.


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