Ballinbreich Castle

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

Ballinbreich Castle
Ballinbreich Castle
Coordinates	56.371177°N 3.180184°W / 56.371177; -3.180184
Site information
Condition	Ruined
Site history
Built	14th-16th century
Built by	Clan Leslie

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.[1] Ballinbreich is a scheduled monument.[2] 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.[3]

Mary, Queen of Scots stayed at the castle on 23 March 1563 and 26 January 1565.[4] 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.[5] James VI visited from Falkland Palace on 18 June 1583 then went on to Carnie, belonging to Sir Robert Melville.[6]