Balgavies Castle

Heritage listing

Date Added 18/11/1992 Type Secular: castle Local Authority Angus Parish Aberlemno NGR NO 53967 51597 Coordinates 353967, 751597 — The monument consists of the remains of Balgavies Castle, destroyed by James I during his journey to the north after the defeat of Argyll in 1593. The castle is sited on a small, wooded knoll. All that remains of the castle are two adjoining barrel vaults, a further partly buried one which leads to a subterranean passage, and portions of surrounding wall footings. The accessible vaults are aligned E-W, and measure 9.5m by 6.5m overall, with walls a maximum thickness of 1.3m. They are rubble-coursed, about 3.1m wide and 2.5m high. The W one has a rectangular window in its N end. The floors of the vaults are sunk 0.8m below the outer ground level. The remains of a wall 1.25m from the vaults can be traced along the S and E and more traces of structural walling are evident to the N of the exposed vaults, extending over the partly buried vault. 4m to the SW of the vault are the footings of a rectangular building with a central partition measuring 17.5m N-S by 7m E-W overall. Further amorphous footings extend to the S. The area to be scheduled is irregular measuring a maximum of 40m E-W by 40m N-S, to include the vaults and surrounding buried features, as shown in red on the accompanying map.

From Historic Environment Scotland under OGL v3.