Balthayock Castle

Balthayock Castle is a privately occupied tower house on a well-protected piece of land overlooking the Balthayock Burn east of Perth. It is situated in private lands and cannot be seen from public roads due to mature trees.

The tower consists of a single rectangular tower of three storeys which contains a single vaulted basement room lit by two narrow slit windows in the south-west gable, a splayed window in the north-east gable, and a narrow window in the north-west wall. The entrance is at a raised ground floor level through the south-east wall. The walls are perhaps three metres thick, meaning that the entrance is actually a narrow corridor through the wall. A square watch room is in the thickness of the wall to the right of this corridor, and access to the first floor is via a mural corridor and narrow winding stair in the thickness of the wall. The interior and the upper parts of the tower have been altered and the original layout is unknown.

Balthayock was held by Patrick de Blair in 1388, from a family who claim to have held lands in the area since the late 12th century. However, Patrick is the fist to have used the designation “of Balthayock”. The Blair family continued to hold Balthayock through into the 19th century, and as far as can be made out, never really extended themselves too much politically. The image shown by Timothy Pont shows the tower as having four storeys and an attic, together with a barmkin wall – the barmkin survives as masonry tusking only – suggesting that the tower was in fact a storey higher than it is today. This is supported by the 1840 engraving which incidentally also shows that an L-shaped mansion existed adjacent to the tower and presumably incorporating part of this barmkin courtyard. Over an arched gateway adjacent to the tower is an armorial panel dated 1578 which may have been removed from the tower. The remodelling of the tower took place in about 1870, which is the date of the crenellation and caphouse.

HES Canmore database entry