Balgonie
Castle
A
15th-century tower house on the south bank of the River Leven
a mile to the south-east of Markinch in central Fife. Associated
with the Sibbald and Lundy families and once occupied by Rob
Roy Macgregor, its most famous owner was the covenanting General
Sir Alexander Leslie who fought with Gustavus Adolphus in the
Thirty Years War. He bought the estate in 1635 six years before
being created 1st Earl of Leven and Lord Balgonie. Restoration
of the tower began in the late 1970s.
A
turbine house using water from the River Leven was built nearby
in 1922 by the Balgonie Colliery Co. The turbine was used as
a source of power by a local paper mill in the 1980s and was
brought back into action in the 1990s by a private power generating
company.
The
ghost for which Balgonie is most famous is known
as Green Jeannie and has been seen mostly at night, particularly
in a part of the castle that was constructed at the beginning
of the eight- eenth century. As her name suggests, the apparition
is bright green in colour.
If
you would like to visit this area as part of a highly personalized
small group tour of my native Scotland please e-mail me:
Return
to Scottish Castles
|