We don’t know for certain who originally built Balvaird Castle, but heraldry above the front entrance gives us a clue. It depicts the impaled arms of Sir Andrew Murray and Dame Margaret Barclay, heiress of the baronies of Arngask and Kippo, which included Balvaird. They may have built Balvaird as their marital home after their wedding in about 1495.
As the Balvairds climbed the aristocratic ladder, they made extensive improvements to the castle. The courtyard buildings date to about 1567.
Features include
the stair tower, positioned between the main block and wing, so the stair didn’t take up too much space use of the wings to provide an additional room on each floor cleverly positioned privies, which all feed into a single waste chute, flushed out by a rainwater tank the fine fireplace and elaborate aumbry (wall cupboard) in the first-floor hall
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