Ballinshoe Tower, Angus
Photo © Richard Paxman, 2 July 2006
Ballinshoe Tower, Angus
Photo © Richard Paxman,
2 July 2006
Ballinshoe is a small fortified tower house near Forfar, and was once part of the Glamis Estate. Built in the 16th century, the tower is rectangular in plan, has two single-room floors, attic space, and an adjacent enclosure. A bartizan is visible in one corner and there was once a circular tower on the opposite corner where the entrance door is. It was originally the property of the Lindsay family but passed to the Fletchers around the mid-17th century.
-- BALLINSHOE CASTLE, FORFARSHIRE.
A small tower, situated about two miles south-east of Kirriemuir, measuring
about 27 feet 4 inches by 22 feet 4 inches. It had a projecting tower at the
north-east corner, but whether it was round or square on
plan is not now ascertainable. It is shown round, and it thus corresponds with
the similar tower at Duchray. In this tower was the staircase. The main block
is three stories in height, none of which are vaulted. There was just one apartment
on each floor, so that the accommodation was very limited, the only extra or
private place being the turret, which was probably corbelled out on the top
so as to give an additional room.
The shot-holes beneath the window sills and other features show that this was a building of the Fourth Period. --
The Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland
by David Macgibbon and Thomas Ross 1889