Balvenie Castle

Balvenie Castle served three powerful families during its history.

The original castle was built in the second half of the 1200s for the powerful Comyn family. As earls of Buchan, they ruled over a vast territory in part of north-east Scotland.

Allied with John Balliol, the Comyns lost power when Robert I (Robert the Bruce) seized the throne in 1306. Bruce took Balvenie in 1308, but it disappears from historical record until the early 1400s. By this point, the castle belongded at a second great dynasty, the Black Douglases.

Records show that Archibald, 4th Earl of Douglas, granted the lordship of Balvenie to his younger brother, James, in 1408. He was known as James 'the Gross'.

It's not known exactly when the Black Douglases acquired Balvenie. It may have been prompted by the 1362 marriage of Archiblad 'the Grim', the 3rd Earl to Joanna Murray. Joanna was heiress to her family's vast inheritance, which including much wealth and property in the eastern Highlands.

The Black Douglases, became as mighty as the Comyns. Although their power base was in southern Scotland, they did appear to invest in Balvenie. The ruined west range, which may include a hall and chamber range, was probably built by the Douglases.

The Douglas downfall came in 1455. James II mistrusted their power and eventually suppressed the family following a lengthy power struggle. All their titles and estates, including the lordship of Balvenie were forfeited to the Crown.

James II granted Balvenie to his half-brother, John Stewart, Earl of Atholl, and his wife, Margaret. Each year, the Stewarts paid the princely sum of a single red rose by way of rent for Balvenie. 

Over 250 years, the family transformed the medieval stronghold into an attractive Renaissance residence. The 4th Earl of Atholl built the magnificent Atholl Lodging in the mid-1500s, easily the most attractive part of the castle from an architectural point of view. It's French-inspired design shows how Scottish aristocrats of the age were taking inspiration from Europe.

Atholl coats of arms along with the family motto - 'Forth fortune and fill thy coffers' - can be seen around the castle.

Balvenie began to change hands far more frequently after the 5th Earl of Atholl died without a male heir in 1595. By the 1720s it was abandoned as a residence, only brielfy re-occupied by government troops towards the end of the Jacobite Rising in 1746. 

The castle was passed into state care in 1925. The only inhabitants you'll find today are the bats and barn owls that live here for part of the year.