Ballone Castle

Ballone Castle was built in the 16th century. It was unoccupied for a couple of centuries and fell into ruin. In the 1990s it was purchased and restored by an architect. The original castle was built on a Z-plan and is unusual in having one round tower and one rectangular tower.

Situated north of Rockfield on the east coast of the parish of Tarbat, Ballone castle, which was also known as Tarbat castle, was reputedly built by the Earls of Ross, but came into possession of the family of Viscount Tarbat and the Earl of Cromartie. John Mackenzie, who was created baronet of Tarbat in the County of Ross in 1628, died there in 1654.

The building is a Z-plan castle with a square tower on the south west and a circular drum-tower on the north east.

After the Tarbat family moved to Tarbat House further south in the parish of Kilmuir Easter, the castle became a ruin, but it has recently been restored as a private house.

Text adapted from “Ballone Castle” on Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0.

Ballone Castle ranks #6,789 of 8,764 worldwide in the atlas's castle fame ranking, and #200 of the 207 mapped in Scotland. Founded c. 1550, it is older than 39% of the atlas's dated landmarks — one of 827 atlas entries founded in the 16th century. 3 more atlas landmarks stand within 25 km. The nearest day-trip guide is Inverness, 46 km away. It is one of the 69 landmarks on the atlas's regional map of the Scottish Highlands. See how Scotland compares in the castle statistics.

View on the interactive castle map →

Read the full history on Wikipedia ↗