Castle in Perth and Kinross

Access is via the Blairgowrie to Braemar road A93, then turn left at The Post Office on to the Bridge of Cally to Pitlochry road A924. Blackcraig Castle is located about 2 miles from Bridge of Cally near Blairgowrie. Blackcraig Castle is designated as a Class A listed building. The castle has its own gardens beside the River Ardle. Blackcraig Castle offers accommodation in antiqued rooms, and traditional Scottish country home-style cooking. Lady Jill Mueller has had a watercolor painting class at Blackcraig Castle and has been teaching there once or twice a summer since 1993. The original castle was a 16th century tower house and was the seat of the Barony of Balmachreuchie. The tower was extended and renovated in about 1856 by Patrick Alan Fraser, and a gatehouse was added. The extension blends in well, although you can see the different stone work between the original tower and the 19th century modifications.

Elcho Castle near Perth is a remarkably well-preserved sixteenth-century Wemyss family fortified house above the south bank of the River Tay, one of the finest examples of a Z-plan Scottish tower house and a property in the care of Historic Environment Scotland. The walls stand to their full height with intact turrets, and the castle preserves a particularly interesting array of gunloops and shot-holes representing the adaptation of Scottish castle architecture to the age of firearms. The quality and completeness of the surviving fabric makes Elcho an exceptional survival of mid-sixteenth-century Scottish domestic and military architecture. The setting on the Tay with views across the fertile Carse of Gowrie toward Dundee and the Angus hills is one of the most attractive of any castle in Perthshire.

Burleigh Castle is located just outside the village of Milnathort, 1.5 miles north of Kinross, in Perth and Kinross. The castle was built in the 15th century. The castle is in ruins, and the remains include the western part of a square courtyard with a tower house in the north-west corner. The tower house is still standing with three storeys and a garret. The walls are five feet thick with corbels at the top which would once have supported a parapet walk. The vaulted basement of the tower remains but roof and internal floors are gone. The stair in the north-east corner would have led to a caphouse giving access to the parapet walk. There is another tower in the south-west that was built in the 16th century. It is two storeys high with a basement and still has its roof in place. The tower is round at the base, and corbelled out to a square upper storey. The date 1582 is engraved in the north gable. The two towers are connected by a section of curtain wall with an arched gate, that would have once fronted a gatehouse. Burleigh Castle tower house was built in the late 15th century by the Balfour family and extended in the 16th century with addition of a curtain wall, second tower, and other outbuildings. In the 18th century, Robert 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 stripped of his property and fled to France. 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.

Taymouth Castle near Kenmore at the eastern end of Loch Tay in Perthshire is one of the grandest Scottish Baronial castles in Scotland, built between 1806 and 1842 for the Earl of Breadalbane in the Tudor Gothic and Scottish Baronial style. The castle was famously visited by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert in 1842, who described the setting as one of the finest they had ever encountered, and the royal visit established Taymouth as one of the most celebrated and glamorous of Scottish Highland estates. After years of disuse the castle is currently undergoing a major restoration programme intended to return it to use as a luxury hotel and golf resort. The setting on the shores of Loch Tay with the mountains of Breadalbane rising on every side is of outstanding scenic quality.

Craighall Castle near Blairgowrie in Perthshire is a historic house of considerable antiquity and picturesque character set on a dramatic clifftop position above the gorge of the River Ericht, incorporating medieval fabric within a structure substantially remodelled and extended over the centuries. The cliff-edge setting above the wooded gorge is one of the most dramatic of any castle site in Perthshire, with the river visible far below through the trees and the steep valley sides enclosing the castle on its rocky promontory. The castle has been associated with the Reid and Murray families and remains a private residence. The area around Blairgowrie in the Tay valley is one of the most scenically attractive parts of Perthshire, celebrated for soft fruit growing and as a gateway to the Cairngorms.

Dalnaglar Castle near Cray in Perthshire is a nineteenth-century Scottish Baronial shooting lodge in an upland glen of the southern Cairngorms above Glenshee, built in the Victorian period when Highland sporting estates became fashionable retreats for wealthy visitors attracted by deer stalking and grouse shooting. Its turreted baronial architecture typifies the Victorian Highland lodge tradition, simultaneously evoking Scottish historical associations and providing comfortable accommodation for sporting parties. The surrounding landscape of the Glenshee uplands is one of the most spectacular in Perthshire, with the Glenshee Ski Centre at the head of the glen providing winter sports. The A93 road over the Glenshee pass is one of the most dramatically scenic roads in Scotland and the highest main road pass in Britain, connecting Blairgowrie to Braemar in Royal Deeside.

Balvaird Castle is situated on a hilltop in the Ochil Hills. Balvaird is a traditional late Scottish tower house, built around the year 1500 for Sir Andrew Murray. It is likely that Balvaird Castle was built on the site of an earlier castle. Balvaird has some fine architectural features including corbels supporting the corner-roundels of the wall-walk. The kitchen is on the ground floor, and there is a pit prison within the wall. The accommodation has a number of rooms in the main block and wing with the main staircase between them. Accommodation on the first floor extends over the gatehouse. There is a walkway around the main block at roof level, with a lookout tower at the top of the main staircase. The Castle is now owned by Historic Scotland who have done some restoration work. The site is open to the public, but the tower-house is only open on summer weekends A gatehouse was built in 1567 with an outer courtyard was attached to the main gate Another courtyard was a added to the south was a garden, and a large walled garden was built to the north-east. The Murray family continued to live at Balvaird until 1658 when they moved to Scone Palace, near Perth. The castle continued to be inhabited, but not by its owners.

Balhousie Castle is located in Hay Street, Perth. The castle standing today is a Baronial style mansion built in 1862. The entrance is located in the tower. Viewed from the east side, you can make out some the original castle stonework. The Castle is the regimental headquarters and museum of the Black Watch. The castle was built in 1631 and was the seat of the Earls of Kinnoull. The castle had a walled enclosure with subsidiary buildings and gardens overlooking the North Inch park. The castle fell into disrepair in the early 19th century, and was extensively renovated in 1862-63 and converted to Baronial style by David Smart. No original features survive except for parts of the original walls on the east side. In 1962, the Castle became the regimental headquarters and museum of the Black Watch.

Huntingtower Castle is located about 3 miles north west of Perth in central Scotland, on the main road to Crieff. The original castle was the three storey Eastern Tower (originally called the Huntingtower). The Eastern Tower was originally built as a gatehouse and was converted to a residential tower house around 1500. The Western Tower was added around the end of the 15th century with a gap of about 3 metres between them. The Western Tower was L-shaped in plan and connected to the Huntingtower by a wooden bridge below the level of the battlements. The space between the two towers was built up later in the 17th century. A great hall was built against the north side of the Western Tower in the 16th century, but nothing remains of it above ground. The defensive walls that originally enclosed the Castle have disappeared. There are a number of early 16th century paintings on the first floor of the Eastern Tower depicting flowers, animals and Biblical scenes. The Eastern Tower has a decorated wooden ceiling showing grotesque animals. This painted ceiling is one of the earliest of its kind to survive in Scotland. Huntingtower Castle was built in the 15th century by the Clan Ruthven and was known for several hundred years as Ruthven Castle. During 1582 the Ruthvens kidnapped the young King James VI, son of Mary Queen of Scots and held him prisoner at the castle for 10 months. This kidnapping is known as the "Raid of Ruthven". James eventually escaped and Ruthven was eventually executed and Ruthven Castle was forfeited to the crown. The Castle and lands were restored to the Ruthven family in 1586. However in 1600, the Ruthvens were again implicated in another plot to kill King James VI and were executed. This time, the king abolished the name of Ruthven and the House of Ruthven ceased to exist. The castle was then renamed Huntingtower. The Castle remained in the possession of the crown until 1643 when it was given to the Murray family. The castle began to fall into disrepair in the late 18th century. Huntingtower Castle is now in the care of Historic Scotland. It is open to the public and can be used as a venue for weddings. Legends Huntingtower is said to be haunted by "Lady Greensleeves", a young woman named Dorothea, daughter of the 1st Earl of Gowrie. The legend says she used to have secret meetings at night in the eastern tower with a servant boyfriend. One night the Countess discovered what was going on and made her way across the bridge from the family quarters in the western tower to the eastern tower to catch the pair. Dorothea heard her mother on the bridge and made her way to the roof. She leapt several metres from the east tower to the battlements of the west tower and rushed back to bed where here mother found her. The following day the couple eloped...

Blair Castle is located about 8 miles from Pitlochry in Highland Perthshire and is the seat of the Dukes and Earls of Atholl. It was one of the first private homes to open to the public in Scotland. Much of the current building was built in 18th century and it is more of a palace than a castle now. There are about 30 rooms open to the public. Inside the castle is a display of arms and armour, and collections of fine pictures, furniture, porcelain, embroidery, Masonic regalia and family memorabilia. The first castle building was a single tower built in 1269 by John Cumming of Badenoch. The tower is still there and is the tallest part of the Castle. The castle was redeveloped and extended in the medieval, Georgian and Victorian eras. Blair Castle was captured by Oliver Cromwell's army in 1652. The Jacobites besieged the castle in 1746 before the battle of Culloden. After the Jacobite defeat at Culloden it was occupied by the English.

Tullibole Castle near Drum in Perthshire is a seventeenth-century tower house of considerable architectural quality, privately owned and occasionally open to visitors as part of Scotland's Doors Open Days programme. The castle was built around 1608 and incorporates a variety of architectural features typical of the early seventeenth-century transition from purely defensive tower house to more comfortable country house. The building is associated with the Halliday family and later the Moncrieffe family, and its interior retains much of its historic character. The surrounding landscape of the Earn valley and the Perthshire hills south of Perth provides an attractive rural setting, and the castle is within easy reach of the various heritage sites of the Perth area including Huntingtower Castle and Elcho Castle.

Kinnaird Castle is a substantial Scottish baronial country house and estate located near Inchture in Perthshire, Scotland. It serves as the ancestral seat of the Carnegie family, the Earls of Southesk, and remains a private family residence to this day. The castle and its surrounding estate are among the more distinguished private landholdings in Tayside, representing centuries of aristocratic heritage tied to one of Scotland's most prominent noble families. While not open to the general public as a tourist attraction in the conventional sense, the estate and its name carry considerable weight in the history of Scottish nobility and the broader cultural landscape of Perthshire. The Carnegie family connection to Kinnaird Castle stretches back several centuries, with the earldom of Southesk being created in 1633. The present castle structure is largely the product of Victorian-era rebuilding and expansion, as was fashionable among landed Scottish families during that period, though the roots of a fortified residence on or near the site are considerably older. The Carnegies of Southesk have played roles in major episodes of Scottish and British history, including involvement in Jacobite affairs — the 5th Earl of Southesk supported the 1715 Jacobite rising, which led to the forfeiture of his title and estates. The earldom and Kinnaird were eventually restored to the family in the nineteenth century, cementing the castle's place once again as the family's principal seat. The castle itself is an imposing structure built in the Scottish baronial style that became so prevalent during the Victorian Gothic revival. This architectural tradition is characterised by turrets, battlements, crow-stepped gables and conical cap-houses that give such buildings a distinctly romantic and medieval atmosphere even when they date from a much later period. Kinnaird Castle fits this description well, presenting a formidable and picturesque silhouette against the open Perthshire sky. The stonework gives the building a sense of permanence and solidity, and the surrounding policies — the formal grounds and parkland surrounding a Scottish country house — lend it the feel of a self-contained world unto itself, sheltered by mature trees and enclosed by estate walls and fencing. The setting of Kinnaird Castle is quintessentially Perthshire lowland, sitting in the broad, fertile Vale of Strathmore that stretches between the Highland line to the north and the Sidlaw Hills to the south. This is some of the finest agricultural land in Scotland, a rolling and productive countryside of large fields, estate woodlands and scattered villages. The landscape here has a quiet, unhurried quality quite different from the more dramatic Highland scenery further north, but it possesses its own particular beauty in the wide skies, the distant blue smudge of the Grampians on the horizon, and the way the light moves across open ground. The nearby village of Inchture lies just a short distance away, and the larger town of Perth is accessible within a relatively short drive. Because Kinnaird Castle is a private residence, public access to the castle building itself is not available. Visitors should not expect to walk the grounds or approach the house without invitation. The estate is clearly maintained as a working and residential property, and the privacy of its occupants should be respected. Those with a keen interest in the Carnegie family history and the earldom of Southesk would be better served by consulting historical records, visiting Perth Museum and Art Gallery, or exploring the wider Perthshire heritage landscape. The surrounding area, however, offers excellent walking, cycling and driving routes through Strathmore, and the region is rich with other sites of interest including Scone Palace, Glamis Castle and the Carse of Gowrie. One particularly compelling dimension of the estate's history involves Sir James Carnegie, who was later instrumental in the nineteenth-century restoration of the family's fortunes and standing. The castle as it largely stands today reflects the ambitions and tastes of the Victorian aristocracy, who sought to express both ancestral prestige and contemporary wealth through grand rebuilding projects. This blend of ancient lineage and Victorian confidence is embedded in the very stones of the building. For those travelling through Perthshire with an eye for the layers of Scottish history written into its landscape, catching a glimpse of Kinnaird Castle from the road offers a brief but evocative encounter with the long story of Scotland's landed nobility.

Evelick Castle is a ruined tower house situated in the hills of Perthshire, Scotland, perched on elevated ground within the Sidlaw Hills to the northeast of Perth. Though modest in scale compared to many of Scotland's more celebrated strongholds, it holds genuine historical interest as a remnant of medieval Scottish architecture and the territorial ambitions of the landed families who once dominated this fertile corner of Tayside. The ruin commands attention not through grandeur but through its atmospheric setting and the quiet sense of deep time that clings to its crumbling stonework, making it a rewarding destination for those who seek out Scotland's quieter, less-visited heritage sites. The castle dates from the medieval period, likely originating in the fifteenth or sixteenth century, and was associated with the lands of Evelick in the parish of Kilspindie. The surrounding area formed part of the broader patchwork of estates and ecclesiastical holdings that characterised lowland Perthshire throughout the medieval and early modern periods. The Hay family had historic connections to this part of Perthshire, and the lands around Evelick were caught up in the shifting fortunes of the Scottish nobility across successive centuries. Like many minor Scottish tower houses, the castle fell into disuse and ruin as the priorities of landownership changed and the defensive function of such buildings became obsolete, leaving behind only the shell that survives today. Physically, what remains of Evelick Castle is a fragmentary stone tower, its walls substantially reduced but still standing to a height sufficient to convey something of the original structure's character. The masonry is rubble-built in the traditional Scottish vernacular manner, with the stone weathered to a grey-green hue by centuries of Perthshire rain and wind. Standing close to the walls, you are struck by the thickness of the construction and the solidity of intent behind it, even in ruin. The site is quiet, the only sounds typically being birdsong and the movement of wind across the open hillside, giving the place a contemplative, slightly melancholy quality that many visitors to ruined Scottish castles find deeply appealing. The surrounding landscape is among the genuine pleasures of visiting Evelick. The Sidlaw Hills form a modest but characterful range running northeast of Perth, offering wide views across Strathmore to the north and the Carse of Gowrie to the south, with the broad silver glint of the River Tay visible on clear days. The farmland around the castle is productive and well-maintained, with arable fields and hedgerows typical of lowland Perthshire. The village of Kilspindie lies nearby, and the broader area includes the historic Kinnoull Hill and the city of Perth within relatively easy reach, meaning a visit to Evelick can be combined with a wider exploration of this historically rich corner of Scotland. Access to Evelick Castle requires some planning, as it sits on private agricultural land and is not formally managed as a public heritage attraction. Visitors should exercise the responsible access rights established under the Land Reform (Scotland) Act 2003, which permits respectful passage across most Scottish land on foot, while being mindful of farming operations and any seasonal restrictions. The approach involves walking across farmland, so sturdy footwear is strongly advisable, particularly in wetter months when the ground can be soft. There is no formal car park, and visitors typically leave vehicles considerately near the minor roads that thread through this rural area before proceeding on foot. The site is not signposted and carries none of the interpretive infrastructure found at managed heritage attractions. One of the more quietly fascinating aspects of Evelick Castle is precisely its obscurity. It appears in historical records and on Ordnance Survey maps but receives little of the tourist footfall that more accessible Perthshire sites attract. This means the experience of visiting is genuinely solitary for most who make the effort, allowing an unmediated encounter with the ruin and its landscape that is increasingly rare in Scotland's more popular heritage corridors. For those with an interest in Scottish architectural history or medieval settlement patterns, sites like Evelick serve as important evidence of how densely settled and hierarchically organised the Perthshire countryside once was, with towers and fortified houses punctuating the landscape at intervals that speak to a very different world of local power and rural life.

Craigend Castle is a ruined country house built as a Regency Gothic mansion, located to the north of Milngavie, in East Dunbartonshire, central Scotland. The grounds are now part of Mugdock Country Park. The stable block, located to the north of the house serves as the country park visitor centre. The lands of Craigend were part of the Barony of Mugdock in medieval times. The estate was sold in the mid-17th century to the Smith family. John Smith (1724-1812) was born at Craigend and became a merchant and founded the booksellers John Smith & Son. John Smith built a plain house on the estate, but after his death his son, James Smith, incorporated that house in a much more ornate mansion. Glasgow businessman William Wilson and his son opened a zoo at Craigend in 1949 with various exotic animals. It failed and closed in 1954.

Castle Menzies near Aberfeldy in Perthshire is a magnificent sixteenth-century Z-plan tower house and the clan seat of the Menzies family, one of the finest and best-preserved examples of Z-plan castle architecture in Scotland. Built around 1571 and extended in the seventeenth century, the castle's plan with main rectangular block and two diagonally placed flanking towers allowed flanking fire to cover all faces of the building. The castle has strong Jacobite associations as the place where Bonnie Prince Charlie rested for two nights in February 1746 during his retreat from Stirling. The castle is in the care of the Menzies Clan Society following significant restoration work, and the surrounding Breadalbane landscape with Loch Tay and the mountains of Glen Lyon is among the most beautiful in Perthshire.