Ballone Castle

Ballone Castle, Tarbat, United Kingdom, was erected in the later part of the 1500s by people of Scotland; its construction is linked to local landholders rather than to any foreign power.

The building probably dates to the second half of the sixteenth century and appears in documents for the first time in the early seventeenth century under the name “the fortalicium of Easter Tarbat.” The lands on which the castle stands were held from 1507 by the Dunbar family, who are possible builders, although an alternative tradition assigns the original work to one of the Earls of Ross. An additional wing is believed to have been added in the early 1600s.

In 1623 the property passed into the hands of Clan Mackenzie and became the residence of one branch of that family. During the seventeenth century the Mackenzies carried out domestic expansions, adding a bakehouse and a brewery beside the main house. Sir John Mackenzie, the first baronet of Tarbat, died at the castle on 10 September 1654. After his era, John Mackenzie, later the second Earl of Cromartie, is recorded as having lived at Ballone at least from the time of his marriage in 1685, at least on an intermittent basis.

Occupation of the castle ceased late in the seventeenth century, with the last habitation dated to around 1691–1693. The building fell into progressive decay from the start of the eighteenth century and by the mid-nineteenth century, in 1845, it was described as a ruin that had stood empty for roughly two hundred years. In March 1971 the property was placed under statutory protection with Category A listed status. Lachlan and Annie Stewart bought Ballone in 1990 and undertook a long programme of restoration. Planning work and legal changes to permit restoration occupied the first three years, and the main restoration project took nearly a decade before the family moved into the house in 1998. Rebuilding of much of the seventeenth-century wing was finished in 2009, and in 2006 Lachlan Stewart received the Nigel Tranter Memorial Award in recognition of the conservation work. The castle today functions as a private residence fitted with modern services and is normally closed to general visitation, though it has been opened on special occasions.