Spring Burleigh Castle Perthshire Scotland

Tour Scotland Spring 4K travel video of Burleigh Castle on visit outside Milnathort, Perthshire. The castle dates from the 15th and 16th centuries. The lands of Burleigh were held by the Balfours from 1456, when they were granted by King James II to John Balfour of Balgarvie, and a tower house was erected in the late 15th or early 16th century. Sir James Balfour of Pittendreich extended the castle in the late 16th century, adding a curtain wall with a corner tower, and other outbuildings. King James VI of Scotland was a frequent visitor in the time of his son, Sir Michael Balfour. James was at Burleigh in January 1589 after spending Christmas at Kinneil House. An Act of Parliament in 1600 made Michael Balfour wealthy, directing landowners and people of standing to buy armour from him, for defence musters. Several men complained that Balfour tried to make them buy more armour than their rank and income demanded. In 1607 Michael Balfour was raised to the peerage as Lord Balfour of Burleigh. Legend tells how Robert Balfour, before his accession as 5th Lord, narrowly escaped death when, in 1707, he was sentenced to beheading for the murder of the schoolmaster of Inverkeithing in Fife, who had the misfortune to have married Balfour's childhood sweetheart. Escaping from Edinburgh tolbooth, Balfour joined the Jacobite cause, proclaiming the Old Pretender James Stuart king at Lochmaben, and fighting in the 1715 rising. Following the defeat of the Jacobites, Balfour was attainted, dying in France in 1757. The castle was forfeit to the Irwins, then passed to the Grahams of Kinross.

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