Pricing Change
New pricing for orders of material from this site will come into place shortly. Charges for supply of digital images, digitisation on demand, prints and licensing will be altered.
Publication Account
Date 2010
Event ID 1019598
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1019598
Fernie Castle is a sixteenth century L-plan tower house, with a circular turret, corbelled to square at upper level, projecting from the north-west angle. This tower is of four storeys, with attics. In the early eighteenth century the Balfours of Fernie added a three storey extension to the east. This large extension, which provided suites of more comfortable accommodation, is still clearly visible and originally made no attempt to match the tower house. About 1815 Francis Balfour made ‘toy fort like’ additions including a porch to the stair tower, the historic entrance to the tower house. A single storey wing to the west, complete with a castellated parapet, was also added, which hid the service courtyard from view. His son, also Francis, employed Alexander Blyth around 1844-9 to remodel the eighteenth century wing to make it more sympathetic to the tower. This involved the addition of crowsteps to the east gable, a conical roofed tower at the north-east corner and a new front door. He also created a double drawing room on the first floor which survives. In the late twentieth century a circular ballroom was added to the rear for the hotel.
To the north-east of the castle is early nineteenth century stable block and mains steading, which consists of two classical courts with a quadrant linking wall between. These are set at a slight angle and present four pedimented gables to the castle. This grand neo-classical scheme was presumably commissioned by Francis Balfour, and its scale and form suggests that it was part of a much grander unrealised scheme for the development of the castle. These buildings have now been converted into housing. The walled garden also survives but now accommodates another dwelling.
The lands originally belonged to MacDuff, Earl of Fife, who, according to tradition, had a castle on this site (Millar 1895, 1, 203 –6), but, by the fifteenth century, they were owned by the Fernies, who sold them to an Arnot of Newton in 1580. In the early seventeenth century an Arnot married an heiress of Balfour of Burleigh and changed his name to Balfour.
Information from ‘The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, Commissioners’ Field Meeting 2010'.
