A small village on the Orkney island of Shapinsay, Balfour was built in the mid-19th Century by John Balfour of Trenabie on Westray, the MP for Orkney and Shetland who had made a fortune in India. He imported craftsmen and weavers to the village and in the 1880s dammed the nearby marshland to provide water for a mill. To the south is Balfour Castle built by David Balfour in 1848. Balfour is now the ferry-port for Shapinsay.
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