Balcomie Castle is a Grade B listed building in the Fife local planning authority area, Scotland. First listed on 24 November 1972. Castle.

Balcomie Castle

WRENN ID
stony-bracket-lark
Grade
B
Local Planning Authority
Fife
Constituency
North East Fife MP: Wendy Chamberlain (LD)
Country
Scotland
Date first listed
24 November 1972
Type
Castle
OS grid reference
NO 624 098
Coordinates
56.27962, -2.60753
Source
Historic Environment Scotland listing

Also on this page: flood risk · radon risk · weather exposure · detailed attributes ↓

Description

Balcomie Castle is a large quadrangular complex that began construction after 1526. The original main tower house block, known as the South Range, is a four-storey structure featuring southwest and southeast towers. The southwest tower is five storeys tall and has two-storey angle turrets, with roofs that were altered to slope with the main roof in the 18th or early 19th century. While the western section and the southwest tower remain relatively intact, much of the interior is unfloored, and only the ground floor of the remainder is left. The South Range exhibits a later 16th century character, constructed from rubble with moulded openings and gun loops in some window breasts, and the surviving parts are slated.

The East Range and gatehouse date from the late 16th century to the early/mid 18th century, with reduced and altered farm buildings added in the early 19th century. The gatehouse, dated 1602, now stands at two storeys, though it was evidently originally taller. It features a segmental pend arch with three fine armorial panels above and moulded openings. To the north of the gatehouse is an 18th-century two-storey, four-window section with a pend arch, also slated. The remainder of this range has been extensively rebuilt as farm buildings, with iron columns and a partiled lean-to cartshed added to the southern parts, which have been reconstructed as a steading.

The West Range, or farmhouse, was built around 1765 to 1775 and is a Georgian wing likely constructed by General Scott. It was retained as a farmhouse during early 19th-century demolition and reconstruction. This three-storey section has a three-window main part and a three-window bow at the south end, with a bowed porch in the northern angle of the bow. It is made of droved ashlar with a piended slated roof. The northern section is two storeys tall, featuring a four-window ground floor and a five-window first floor, also constructed from droved ashlar and slated. The original woodwork remains intact. Additionally, there is a single-storey pantiled farmsteading at the north end of the complex, which includes a polygonal horsemill.

Local climate

Balcomie Castle receives an average of 840 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 57% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 52% of listed buildings.

It experiences an average of 23 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 76% of listed buildings. Of these, 12 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.3°C per decade since 1991.

Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.

More on this building

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