Scotland · Restored
Balintore Castle
Balintore Castle is a Victorian Scottish Baronial country house near Kirriemuir in Angus, Scotland, designed in 1859 by William Burn as a sporting lodge for David Lyon. It occupies an elevated moorland site above Balintore village and is noted for many turrets and gables and a prominent balustraded viewing platform. After a period of abandonment it has been acquired and is being restored and reoccupied.
Its prime
1870
Today
Restored
As it stood in 1870
What Balintore Castle looked like in its prime.
A mid-Victorian Scottish Baronial mansion of grey masonry set on elevated moorland, with an irregular silhouette of multiple round and square turreted towers, steep gables and tall chimney stacks. The dominant central tower is topped by a balustraded viewing platform and clustered pinnacles; smaller corbelled turrets punctuate corners. The façade once included a projecting oriel window (now missing). Rooflines are steep and varied; the building sits above a gently sloping grassy approach scattered with mature trees.
Its story
The story of Balintore Castle.
Pont's Balintor and David Lyon's Sporting Lodge
A tower house named Balintor stood on the site in the late 16th century, recorded on Timothy Pont's maps. Balintore Castle was commissioned as a sporting lodge by the member of parliament David Lyon and designed in 1859 by the architect William Burn, on an elevated moorland site above Balintore village, a few miles north of the Loch of Lintrathen near Kirriemuir in Angus. In its later years it was used only during the shooting season.
Dry Rot, the Empty Years and the Buildings at Risk Register
In the 1960s it was decided not to repair the extensive dry rot, and the house was abandoned. It then stood empty until 2007, during which time its condition deteriorated to the point of endangering the structure. It has been listed on the Buildings at Risk Register for Scotland since the register began in 1990.
Compulsory Purchase and a Resident Restorer
The house has been protected as a category A listed building since 15 January 1980. Angus Council used its compulsory purchase powers to buy it from its absentee Far Eastern owners, and it is now in the hands of a Scotsman who is restoring it and living there.
Step inside
12 places to explore in 1870.
The record describes 12 distinct spots at Balintore Castle, including 10 interiors: main entrance hall / vestibule, great hall, gallery (overlooking the great hall) and more. Create your own photoreal reconstruction and explore every one, more scenes means more rooms, more angles, and more of the place to stand in.
Build Your Own Castle
Recreate Balintore Castle with AI to explore it.
The artist rebuilds it as it stood in 1870, a photoreal reconstruction that belongs to you alone. Pay with coins, no subscription needed.
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Clans who held Balintore Castle.
The families that held Balintore Castle for a decade or more across its history, follow a name to its clan.
Lyon
Balintore was designed in 1859 by William Burn as a sporting lodge for David Lyon.
Nearby
