Archaeology Notes

Event ID 685655

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/685655

NO22SE 8 2717 2047

(NO 2717 2047) Ballinbreich Castle (NR)

OS 6" map (1959).

NO22SE 8.01 NO 272 204 Fastener; Tankard

NO22SE 8.02 NO 2720 2040 Buckle; Spindle Whorl

See also:

NO22SE 10 NO 2726 2052 Chapel (site)

The earliest buildings at Balinbreich Castle were 14th century, but major reconstructions took place early in the 16th century and again c.1572 (to which a dated stone above the entrance attests), when the buildings assumed their present form. They are now reduced to a mere shell, in a dangerous state of disrepair.

D MacGibbon and T Ross 1887; A H Millar 1895; RCAHMS 1933, visited 1930.

Ballinbreich Castle is as described and illustrated, comprising a keep and 16th century buildings surrounding three sides of a courtyard. The interior of the castle is thickly overgrown with trees and vegetation, and the walls are in a bad state of repair.

Visited by OS (WDJ) 19 May 1970

One half of a consecration cross five courses from ground level on S- facing ashlar wall of N wing of the castle.

Mrs Morrison 1976.

Site recorded by Maritime Fife during the Coastal Assessment Survey for Historic Scotland, Fife Ness to Newburgh 1996

Scheduled as 'Ballinbreich Castle... a major courtyard castle... on sloping ground on the south shore of the River Tay'.

Information from Historic Scotland, scheduling document dated 8 September 2003.