Ballone Castle

Ballone Castle is near Portmahomack which is about 9 miles from Tain. The castle is a large late 16th century Z-plan tower house. It has been recently restores and you can see how it was before that here. The lands were the property of the Earls of Ross, but passed to the Dunbars of Tarbat in 1507, then to the Mackenzies in 1623, who were made Earls of Cromarty in 1703 and changed the name to Castlehaven. It was abandoned in favour of Tarbat House, a three- storey classical mansion, in the late 17th century, and was ruined by 1680.
We had a lovely day at the castle with blue skies and quite warm.