Blairlogie Castle

Blairlogie Castle is a multiphase occupied house with a 16th century tower house at the core. It sits within private grounds at the edge of the heritage village of Blairlogie, and cannot be seen from public roads. The steep slopes of Dumyat Hill rise immediately to the north, and a small burn flows to the east. Although not strongly situated, the location would have had good views south across the Forth floodplain. It is not open to the public.

The castle consists of four main parts; the old tower, which was three storeys tall and had at least two corner turrets, a rectangular residential block to the rear, and two extensions on the eastern side. The old tower has two vaulted cellars, a single hall above which has a modern oriel window and a projecting stair turret on the south-eastern corner leading up to the room above which is housed within the attic space – and which was originally subdivided with a second turret on the south-western corner. This building was erected after 1543. The older of the extensions, of similar height, was added to the northern end of the east wall in about 1582, creating an L-plan house – and it is likely that a courtyard was to the south-east.

The lands of Blairlogie were held by the Crown until 1513, when James IV granted them to James Spittal, a merchant in Stirling said to have been the tailor to Queen Margaret. When James died in 1528, it was his younger son, another James, who inherited them. It was his son Alexander who had the tower erected, and Alexander’s son Adam who extended it to the L-plan. The Spittal family remained at Blairlogie into the 18th century, the last to bear the name being Elizabeth, who was married to Robert Dundas of Blair, near Culross. In 1845 another Robert Dundas sold the estate, after which the estate was sold multiple times. In 1891, Lt-Col James Hare purchased it, and carried out extensions and alterations; after this the estate was slowly sold off piecemeal, leaving it eventually with only a couple of acres.

HES Canmopre database entry