Balfluig Castle is an

L-plan An L-plan castle is a castle or tower house in the shape of an L, typically built from the 13th to the 17th century. This design is found quite frequently in Scotland, but is also seen in England, Ireland, Romania, Sardinia, and other location ...

tower house A tower house is a particular type of stone structure, built for defensive purposes as well as habitation. Tower houses began to appear in the Middle Ages, especially in mountainous or limited access areas, in order to command and defend strateg ...

, dating from the mid-16th century, a mile south of Alford, in the Howe of Alford,

Aberdeenshire Aberdeenshire ( sco, Aiberdeenshire; gd, Siorrachd Obar Dheathain) is one of the 32 Subdivisions of Scotland#council areas of Scotland, council areas of Scotland. It takes its name from the County of Aberdeen which has substantially differe ...

, Scotland.Lindsay, Maurice (1986) ''The Castles of Scotland''. Constable. p.63 The tower is conspicuous throughout the Howe. It may be viewed by appointment.

History

The first owners of Balfluig were a branch of Clan Forbes. The voussoirs on the doorway show the date 1556. The castle was burned during the battle of Alford in 1645. It was purchased by the Farquharson of Haughton in 1753. In due course it was used as a farmhouse. It was derelict by the 1960s, but a new owner, Mark Tennant, restored it, as one of the earliest fortalices saved through the help of the Historic Buildings Council for Scotland, particularly through the advocacy of

W. Douglas Simpson William Douglas Simpson CBE (2 August 1896 – 9 October 1968) was a Scotland, Scottish academic and writer who focused on the study of medieval architecture and archaeology. Career Simpson was appointed Assistant in History at the Univers ...

. The date of building is significant as it is in a period where there was little private building in Scotland.

Structure

The plan of the castle is highly unusual. The main block of the castle has three storeys and a garret. The wing, one storey higher, and topped by a watchtower, projects eastward from the main block in a way that creates two re-entrant angles. A semicircular stair tower rises in the south-west angle. The outer angles are

corbelled In architecture, a corbel is a structural piece of stone, wood or metal jutting from a wall to carry a superincumbent weight, a type of bracket. A corbel is a solid piece of material in the wall, whereas a console is a piece applied to the st ...

square beneath roof level, being rounded lower. The walls have many gun loops. On the south gable is a massive chimney stack. A courtyard leads to the entrance, an arched doorway protected by gun loops, which is in the main re-entrant angle. The basement of the main block contains two vaulted chambers, the kitchen and the wine cellar. There is a private stair to the hall above, which has a vaulted withdrawing room attached. In the basement of the wing is a vaulted guardroom, which has a small prison beneath the turnpike stair. The tower is roughly built of pinned boulder rubble; the dressings are part sandstone and part granite. The open timbered roof probably dates from the restoration of the castle after the battle of Alford. It is a category A listed building.

Tradition

Tradition asserts that there was another fortalice nearby. The rival lairds would shoot at each other from their watch rooms. After one finally killed the other, the surviving laird was filled with remorse.

References

{{Authority control Castles in Aberdeenshire Category A listed buildings in Aberdeenshire Listed castles in Scotland