Balcomie Castle. View from south.

Description Balcomie Castle. View from south.

Date c. 1885

Collection Papers of Erskine Beveridge, antiquarian, Dunfermline, Fife, Scotland

Catalogue Number SC 747692

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of F 1894

Scope and Content Balcomie Castle, Fife, from the south Balcomie Castle, the remains of a large mansion dating from the late 16th century, stands in a rural setting on Fife Ness about 0.8km from the sea. Although much of the building is ruinous, the south-west tower and the west bay of the main block are complete. A late Georgian farmhouse and steading, rebuilt c.1800 from part of the ruins, is incorporated into the building. This photograph of the castle and adjacent farmhouse was taken c.1885 by Erskine Beveridge. The square, five-storeyed, rubble-built south-west tower (centre) has a large chimney on its south-facing gable, flanked by two-storeyed corbelled-out corner turrets sadly deprived of their conical roofs. The adjoining west bay of the main block (right), with a steeply pitched roof and tall chimneys, still stands to its full height of four storeys. Its dormer windows presumably were originally topped with pediments. The ashlar-fronted farmhouse (left), with a bowed projection, adjoins the castle to the west. James Learmonth of Clatto was granted the lands of Balcomie in 1526 with the condition that he build a house, but the earliest surviving fragments of the castle date from the late 16th century. These are the remains of the south range which once formed one side of a courtyard, and was apparently laid out on a symmetrical plan with a four-storeyed main block lying in an east-west direction, and a square, five-storeyed tower projecting at each end. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

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File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap