Scottish Castles

Local information

Castles in Perthshire

• Wedding castles in Perthshire

The county of Perthshire sits in the heart of Scotland, just one hour from both Glasgow and Edinburgh. Perthshire is home to the city of Perth, the former Scottish capital, as well as 2,000 square miles of rolling rural countryside, Scottish glens, mountainous highland areas, and with its tiny villages and calming lakes and lochs, this is the perfect backdrop to explore the many castles sprinkled throughout Perthshire.

The city of Perth, a former Scottish capital, is a great place from which to set off into the countryside to explore the 2,000 square miles of rolling rural Perthshire countryside. Balhousie Castle, the Black Watch Museum, is located in Hay Street and dates back to 1631, when the Earls of Kinnoull originally sat. Just outside the centre of Perth sits Scone Palace, once the crowing place of the Kings of Scotland and now the home of the Stone of Scone. Elcho Castle, a Historic Scotland property, is a 16th century fortified mansion located 4 miles south east of Perth in Elcho. 9 miles south of Elcho Castle is the well preserved medieval Scottish tower house Balvaird Castle, built in 1500 by Sir Andrew Murray, a son of the Murray of Tullibardine family. Nearby is Fingask Castle, a country house near Rait, on the fringes of the Sidlaw Hills. Historic Scotland’s Huntingtower Castle, 3.5 miles northwest of Perth, was built in the 15th century by Clan Ruthven and was known for hundreds of years as the House (or Place) of Ruthven. Methven Castle, 3 miles from Huntingtower, was home of Margaret Tudor, queen of James IV, daughter of Henry VII of England. 10 miles around to the east side of Perth, Kinfauns Castle is an A-listed building currently a private estate. 12 miles from Kinfauns in Longforgan near the Firth of Tay is Castle Huntly, built in 1452 by Baron Gray of Fowlis, is now one of two Open Prisons in Scotland.

Lochleven Castle © Jonathan Oldenbuck

Kinross is a small town on the west side of Loch Leven, but it is just steps from where the annual and increasingly record-breaking T in the Park music festival is held, at Balado Airfield. If your interests are more historical than history-making, there are two major castle ruin sites not to be missed. Lochleven Castle is a ruined castle built in 1300, and is the place where Mary Queen of Scots was imprisioned and subsequently escaped from. The remains of Burleigh Castle lie in Milnathort, just 1.5 miles north of Kinross.

Crieff is a market town between Perth and Crianlarich and the area surrounding Crieff is home to two well preserved castles. Just 3 miles from Crieff in Muthill is Drummond Castle, set on the Gask Ridge and built in 1491 by Sir John Drummond. 10 miles outside of Crieff is the gothic Kincardine Castle, a 19th century manor house near Auchterarder.

Blaigowrie and Rattray, famous for its golf course by the same name, is also near to Kirkmichael, where you will find Ashintully Castle, built in 1583 by the chiefs of the Spalding Clan, and later the Duke of Atholl, the Chief of the Murray Clan.

Blair Castle © Guillaume Piolle

Kenmore is a small village where Loch Tay empties into the River Tay, and where Taymouth Castle, and formerly Balloch Castle, stands. The original Balloch Castle was built in the 1500s. Taymouth Castle that stands there now is an extravagant Gothic mansion. 7 miles from Taymouth Castle is Castle Menzies, the ancestral seat of the Clan Menzies, who held this strategically placed and beautifully designed castle. 20 miles from Kenmore, Finlarig Castle is a 17th Century castle ruin built by Duncan Campbell, of the Campbells of Breadalbane. Meggernie Castle is also rumoured to have been built by the Campbells, located halfway up Glen Lyon where the River Lyon flows through to join Loch Tay, just 19 miles from Kenmore.

Blair Atholl is a small town in the scarce flat land of the Grampian Mountains, in the Cairngorms National Park. The town is also home to Blair Castle, one of Scotland’s premier stately homes first built in 1269 and which is the seat of the Duke of Atholl.

Perthshire castles