Ballinbreich Castle is a ruined tower house castle in Fife, Scotland.

The castle was built in the 14th century by Clan Leslie, and subsequently rebuilt several times. There may have been an outer curtain-wall though this no longer survives. Much of the present structure is of 16th-century date. It is a three-storey L-plan castle and overlooks the Firth of Tay. Ballinbreich is a scheduled monument. It was a home of the Leslie family, Earl of Rothes.

Early maps of the castle by Timothy Pont and John Adair at the National Library of Scotland show the castle within a curving wall or earth bank. From the air, two curving enclosures can be seen, the crop mark remains of ditches. The inner area was probably the 16th-century garden, and rectilinear crop marks within the larger enclosure may have been later garden features.Marilyn Brown, Scotland's Lost Gardens (RCAHMS, Edinburgh, 2012), pp. 112-3.

Mary, Queen of Scots stayed at the castle on 23 March 1563 and 26 January 1565.Edward Furgol, 'Scottish Itinerary of Mary Queen of Scots, 1542-8 and 1561-8', PSAS, 117 (1987), microfiche, scanned During the 1565 rebellion known as the Chaseabout Raid, Mary and Lord Darnley ordered James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray and William Kirkcaldy of Grange to surrender the Abbot's house at St. Andrews, Ballinbreich, and Hallyards Castle to their officers.John Hill Burton, Register of the Privy Council of Scotland, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1877), p. 353.

Regent Morton made a progress in September 1575. He came to Ballinbreich from Tullibardine and went on to Huntingtower Castle to the christening of James Ruthven, 2nd Earl of Gowrie.George R. Hewitt, Scotland under Morton (John Donald, 1982), p. 43: Calendar State Papers Scotland: 1574-1581, vol. 5 (Edinburgh, 1907), p. 197 no. 202. James VI stopped at Ballinbreich on 28 June 1583 (18 June O.S.) then went on to Lordscarnie, belonging to Sir Robert Melville.William Boyd, Calendar of State Papers Scotland: 1581-1583, vol. 6 (Edinburgh, 1910), p. 506.

See also Scheduled monuments in Fife

References

External links

Ballinbreich Castle Pictures