Balgonie Castle

The lands of Balgonie, on the south bank of the River Leven in Fife, were held by the Sibbalds from at least 1246. Probably in the 1360s they built a barmkin, a fortified courtyard, with a tower house at its north-west corner; the keep's ground and first floors are vaulted, and the first-floor hall was built, unusually, without a great fireplace, originally reached by a moveable timber stair.

The lands and castle passed with a Sibbald daughter to Sir Robert Lundie, who extended Balgonie in 1496 after his appointment as Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, adding a two-storey range east of the keep with a long hall and solar that absorbed an earlier corner tower and the 14th-century chapel. King James IV visited on 20 August 1496 and gave the masons eighteen shillings as a gift.

Balgonie was sold to the Boswells in 1627 and sold on again in 1635 to Sir Alexander Leslie, who had fought for the Swedish army during the Thirty Years' War, risen to Field Marshal, and led the Covenanters in the Bishops' Wars. He was created Lord Balgonie and Earl of Leven in 1641 and retired in 1654, adding a two-storey building at the courtyard's south-east corner; initials found inside it for Leslie and his wife Dame Agnes Renton suggest the block was built before his elevation to the peerage. He also raised the late-15th-century north range by a storey and laid out a park, remnants of which survive.

John Leslie, 7th Earl of Rothes, disputed the earldom of Leven with David Melville after the 2nd Earl's death in 1664, and brought in John Mylne junior, the king's master mason, to build a grand stair linking keep and north range where a wooden bridge had previously stood. David Melville inherited Balgonie along with the earldom on Rothes's death in 1681.

In 1706 Melville added a three-storey range linking the north range to the south-east block, built by master mason Gilbert Smith. Rob Roy MacGregor captured Balgonie Castle during a raid in 1716, though it was soon returned to the Melvilles. David Melville, 6th Earl of Leven, made minor improvements in the 1720s, including the insertion of sash windows, and further buildings went up within the courtyard.

James Balfour of Whittingehame, grandfather of Arthur Balfour, prime minister from 1902 to 1905, bought Balgonie in 1824 but could not arrest its decline; the roofs were removed in the mid-19th century to avoid paying tax on the property, and the castle suffered further vandalism in the 1960s. Restoration began in 1971 under owner David Maxwell and continued through the 1970s and 1980s, helped by European funding during European Architectural Heritage Year in 1975.

The keep and chapel are now fully restored and occupied by the family of Raymond Morris, originally of Walsall, while the north and east ranges remain roofless; the restored chapel and great hall are hired out for events such as weddings. Balgonie, excepting the residential tower, is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, and has been a category A listed building since 1972. The castle's ghost stories include Green Jeanie, said to be one of the Lundie household, along with a 17th-century soldier, a dog and a hooded man; a skeleton was found beneath the great hall floor during works in 1912.