Balvaird Castle is a traditional Scottish tower house built around the year 1500 for Sir Andrew Murray, a younger son of the Murrays of Tullibardine. He aquired the lands of Balvaird in Perthshire through marriage to the heiress Margaret Barclay, a member of a wealthy family. It is likely that Balvaird Castle was built on the site of an earlier Barclay family castle. A tower house stands on a hillock near Quin along the back road from Limerick to Ennis. ... 1500 was a common year starting on Monday (see link for calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... Perthshire is an traditional county in central Scotland, which extends from Strathmore in the east, to the Pass of Drumochter in the north, Rannoch Moor and Ben Lui in the west, and Aberfoyle in the south. ...
Additions and later history
Over the years the castle was extended and altered. A gatehouse was built in 1567. An outer courtyard was attached to the main gate which possibly contained stabling as well as adding an extra layer of defence to the castle. Another courtyard to the south was a garden, while a much larger walled area to the north-east was an orchard or 'pleasance.' Events The Duke of Alva arrives in the Netherlands with Spanish forces to suppress unrest there. ... An orchard is an intentional planting of trees or shrubs maintained for food production. ...
The family continued to live at Balvaird until they inherited the Earldom of Mansfield and in 1658 moved to the rather more comfortable Scone Palace, near Perth. Thereafter the castle continued to be inhabited, though not by the family itself. In its later days, the castle probably accomodated farm workers. The Earl of Mansfield and Mansfield is a peer in the Peerage of Great Britain, holding two separate creations of the title of Earl of Mansfield in that peerage, the first created in 1776 and the second in 1792. ... Events January 13 - Edward Sexby, who had plotted against Oliver Cromwell, dies in Tower of London February 6 - Swedish troops of Charles X Gustav of Sweden cross The Great Belt (Storebælt) in Denmark over frozen sea May 1 - Publication of Hydriotaphia, Urn Burial and The Garden of Cyrus by... Scone Palace is a palace near Perth, in Scotland built 1802-1812. ...
BalvairdCastle is perched on a hilltop overlooking the A912 as it makes its way over the eastern arm of the Ochil Hills, about a mile south of junction with the better known road leading through Glen Farg.
BalvairdCastle was built in 1500 by Sir Andrew Murray, a member of the Murray family of Tullibardine.
Today the castle comprises a very large tower house, only open to the public on summer weekends, and the ruins of a number of the courtyard buildings that supported the operation of the castle during the residence of the Murrays.
BalvairdCastle in Perthshire was a symbol of feudal times and is well worth seeing.
The name " Balvaird " is Celtic, signifying " The town of the Bard." This means that long before the castle was erected the spot was the residence of the old Druidical Bard, the poet laureate of his tribe.
The Murrays of Balvaird were the forebears of the family which eventually acquired the titles of Lord Balvaird, Viscount Stormont and Earl of Mansfield.
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