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Note
Date 5 July 2022
Event ID 1138944
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Note
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1138944
Baltersan was a possession of a branch of the Kennedy family from the late 15th century, when it was recorded that James Kennedy of Baltersan, Lord of Row, married Egidia Blair. Egidia died at her 'dwelling-house' of Baltersan in 1530; a predecessor building to the present tower.
On the 28 March 1574, confirmatory Precept of Clare Constat by Alan, Commentator of Crossraguel, makes mention of 'the three merkland of Baltersan of old extent, with mansion and orchards'. A now illegible inscription on the lintel of the entrance to the tower was recorded in the 19th century and read 'This house was first begun the First day of March 1584 by John Kennedy of Pennyglen and Margret Cathcart his spouse'. John Kennedy was a grandson of James and Egidia Kennedy.
Baltersan has received considerable attention from travellers, antiquarians and architects over the centuries. In his 'Description of Carrict', written in 1696, the Rev. William Abercrombie describes Baltersan, which was still occupied, as 'a stately, Fyne house with gardens, Orchards and parks around it'. The house was sketched by Robert Adam, and his brother-in-Law, Clerk of Eldin, in 1762 as part of a drawing of Crossreguel Abbey and was drawn by Charles Rennie Mackintosh in 1895.
The castle consists of a rectangular main block, with a rectangular stair tower projecting from the NE corner. The entrance is in the re-entrant angle and was secured, in the usual fashion, with an outer wooden door and inner iron yett.
The accommodation is typical of a late-16th century tower, with ground-floor vaulted cellarage and a kitchen, accessed via a vaulted corridor running most of the length of the main block. On the first floor, the hall took up the majority of the main block, and was accessed from the main stair within the stair tower and service stair rising in the SE corner. The hall fireplace was in the north wall, but all that survives is a large gap showing where it has been robbed. The upper floors are divided into two, the second floor chambers each supplied with a latrine and fireplace, and are served by the main stair and a secondary stair raising from the hall in the SW angle.
Baltersan has may features typical of tower houses dating to the second half of the 16th century, including its plan which has similarities with Scalloway Castle, Shetland. However, Baltersan does exhibit some unusually sophisticated features including sliding shutters at the second floor level, a rooftop water collection system which served the kitchen and a fine oriel window to the caphouse above the main stair (similar to oriels at Gylen Castle, Argyll and nearby Maybole Castle). The mouldings and details of the tower are also of unusually high quality.
J Brown 2000; D MacGibbon and T Ross 1887-92
Information from the HES Castle Conservation Register, 4 July 2022