1288 Balhousie Castle home of the Black Watch Museum in Perth

Balhouse Castle

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The origins of Balhouse Castle are side to dale back to 12th century.Originally an L-shape tower house what we see today is the central part,possible dating from the 17th century.Documentation of Balhousie Castle begins in the 15th century.In 1422,Murdoch Steward 2nd Duke of Albany granted the Barony of Balhousie to John Eviot.The property remained in the Eviot Family,whith a brief interlude in which the Mercers,a well-known family in the Burgh of Perth,had possession of the property,until 1609,when the land were sold by Colin Eviot to John Mathew,son of Robert Mathew,merchant of Perth.The property then passed to Andrew Grant and John Lamb.

 

On September 27,1625,King Charles I of Great Britain granted to Master Francis Hay,his heirs and assignees,the land and barony of Balhousie.He was the son of Peter Hay of Raitray and was a writer to the Signet before 1617.He acquired several properties in Perthshire and Wigtownshire,including George Hay the Barony of Dupplin in 1642.He was fined $322.00 under Cromwell's Act of Grace and Pardon in 1654.He was succeded by his son George Hay (died 1672),who in turn was succeded by his son Thomas Hay.

 

Thomas Hay of Balhouse was the Member of Parliament for Perthshire in the 1690s.He was created Viscount Dupplin,with remember to heirs-male of his body on December 31,1697.

 

William Hay sixth Earl of Kinnoull,died unmarried in 1709 and Thomas Hay succeeded to the title as seventh Earl of Kennoull.He was suspected of favouring the Jacobits and was imprisoned in Edinburgh Castle,dyinfour years later.The succession of Earls continued George Henry Eighth Earl of Kennoull,Member of Parliament for Fowey,Cornwall,Thomas Hay Ninth Earl of Kennoull,Member of Parliament for Cambridge,Robert Auriol Hay Drummond,who succeeded his uncle as the tenth Earl of Kennoull,was appointed Load Lyon King of Arms,which was sinecure.His son Thomas Roert Hay Drummond,succeeded as Eleventh Earl of Kennoull.He was Colonel of the Royal Perthshire Milita,1809-1855,Lord Lieutenant of the Perthshire County and succeeded his farther as Lord Lyon ,King of Arms.It who he exteneded the Balhousie Castle.

 

The Hays did not live at Balhousie Castle,their main residence was a Dupplin by the early 1860s the Balhousie Castle was in dilapidated state.Only the first floor was inhabited.Thomas Robert restored the Balhousie Castle and added two wings to the original L-shape tower house.The architect he employed was Divid Smart.The building was then let out.The tenants include,Henry Hay Norie,a lawyer,John Shields of Wallace Works,who died in 1889 and James Ramsay,a jute broker.

 

The Hay Family came to live at the Balhousie Castle c1912 and remained until 1926.The Balhousie Castle then became a convent.The nuns were from the Society of St.Peter and were associated with St.Ninian's Episcopal Cathedral.They appear to have resided in the Balhousie Castle c 1940.

 

During the Second World War,the property was used by the Royal Army Auxiliary Training Service as Officers Quaters.After the War,it housed a detachment of the Royal Army Service Corps and the Headquaters,Highland District,Corps of Royal Engineers.

 

In the earl 1960s there was a majory Royal Army re-organistion.The Black Watch Dept at the Queen's Barracks was closed and Black Watch Regimental; Headquaters and the Black Watch Regimental Museum came to the Balhousie Castle where they remain to this day.

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