It was then that it began to deteriorate.
However even into the 1980's there were books, kitchen crockery, art, and even a heavy slate pool table in the castle. Various owners promised restoration, but were scared off when they realized the enormity of the undertaking.
Our first view of Balintore Castle!
Wow!
Fantastic!
Into the 90's, the then owner was a Taiwanese businessman. Who once again was not doing any work on the building. There is a legal procedure in Scotland that can force the owner to sell, and it took 8 years for this to complete in order for the current owner, Dr. David Johnston to gain control of the structure in 2007.
David has been working on the building since 2007, and by 2019 he was ready to open several rooms for guests to stay to help pay for the incredibly expensive renovations.
David met us at the castle, and welcomed us to our room!
We were staying in "the Red Room".
View from our window.
Two of the available rooms are on the top floor. Now, keep in mind that the castle is an ongoing, active construction site. This is not a five star luxury stay! We were walked up flights of stairs that are unfinished...sturdy, and safe... but unfinished. It all adds to the ambience!
There is a lot of this kind of thing.
But our room and the facilities were perfectly functional.
The room is decorated with period furnishings.
Signatures of repairmen who did work in the castle in 1877.
We have two bathrooms! One that has a wash tub, and one that is located in the turret just off our bedroom.
Our main bathroom.
Print of Queen Victoria and the Royal Family.
The small bathroom in the turret off our bedroom.
There is also a well equipped kitchen for room guests to use.
Balintore Castle.
View from the front of the castle.
The front facade.
As I said, the castle is an active construction site.
There had been a large oriel window where that big hole is.
It collapsed some time in the 1990's.
Our bedroom is the top right window.
Another view.
Door knocker.
We haven't had any kind of a tour yet, but hopefully David will have time to show us the main highlights before we leave this morning. There are approximately 85 rooms in the castle! There would have been probably 12 servants living here during the times it was occupied... as well as The Great Hall, a drawing room, dining room, library, gallery, bedroom suites, multiple servant areas, kitchen, pantry, beer cellar and more.
He keeps a detailed blog of the restoration work at https://balintorecastle.blogspot.com/ that goes all the way back to 2011.
We went for a walk in the area, and ended up in some fields on a hill behind the castle.
You would have to zoom in to try to see it, but there is a herd of deer.
At first, we thought they were cattle. They were really far away. Then I used the 100x zoom on my phone to get a closer up photo. The 100x zoom is not very good quality, but you can certainly see that these are not cattle!
No, these are not cattle!
It turns out they are Red Deer. A huge herd of them. And they were coming our way. We stood still and they kept coming. You could tell they knew we were there, looking our way and sniffing with their heads up in the air. But they actually got quite close.
This is with a much better quality 10x zoom.
I took a video for you...
It was really something. I mean, we're in quite a remote area but we weren't expecting this kind of wildlife. Further along we met a young man out walking and he had also watched the deer. He said he has seen them before, but never this many. He said there must have been over 200 animals.
The entrance road to the castle.
We slept really well! It was so quiet... we were not woken up by any ghosts! However, every castle is haunted... here is the story of the hauntings of Balintore Castle... https://www.scottish-paranormal.co.uk/post/the-secret-hauntings-of-balintore-castle
We wish we had made plans to stay here longer. Yes, it's expensive compared to what we normally spend, but at £110 ($207 CAD, $151 USD) per night it's cheap for the experience of staying in a castle!
We had a great stay, and really enjoyed it!
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Back in 1967 , I took a bus tour of England Scotland and Wales. Because I was the youngest (22), on a bus of Seniors , The tour guide thought it would be a great memory for me so she told the desk to change my room to the Turret of the Castle turned into hotel. It was a memory I cherish as many don't get to live in a castle. BTW I was awoken in the morning by a piper under the window. I for the life of me don't remember the name of the Scotish Castle. Barb
ReplyDeleteWhat what a wonderful experience for you. That tour guide was very thoughful and we are glad that you have that wonderful memory to look back on. You are right, not many people get a chance to stay in a castle, so Kevin was thrilled to have this experience as well. The piper was just an added bonus! It's a shame you don't remember which castle it was.
DeleteWhat an incredible experience - and a beautiful castle and grounds. The deer are surprising but so pretty! I've been enjoying a show called "Castle Impossible" (I think that's right) on HGTV, about a young couple renovating a French chateau. Your pictures reminded me of that and their efforts. She inherited it from her grandfather, and it's amazing. They host weddings there to pay for the reno efforts, and they recently renovated a couple of rooms that people can rent. Glad you got to do that!
ReplyDeleteIt really is and we loved the fact that it is still in the process of being renovated because it gave us a chance to see what parts of the castle were like and the sad state of repair it was in, with some of the rooms that we got to see. David is doing an amazing job fixing it up and trying to keep it looking as original as possible along with finding lots of period furnishings and decor to put in the various rooms. It has been a huge undertaking for him.
DeleteThe young couple in the show you are watching sound very much like David in respect to fixing up rooms to let out to overnight guests and being able to do large events to help pay for the renovations needed, I think that David is also hoping to do that too but he has had to deal with lots of red tape along the way which has held up that part of his plan but he does have a number of rooms on Airbnb so at least that helps him and as he fixes up more rooms he will have more to rent out.
We were glad to have had the opportunity to stay in the castle, our only regret is that we couldn't have stayed more than that one night. We may have to return in the future for another visit.
Geez, that's a lot of deer,!!! U don't think of there being such wildlife there!
ReplyDeleteIt was a huge herd of deer, we never expected that either. We have seen red deer since arriving into Scotland but only one or two at a time and they have all been female ones, so smaller in size. The males almost look like elk, just not quite as big. Red deer are one of the largest deer species.
DeleteVery cool! Saving this! Love the deer!
ReplyDeleteI hope that you make a visit to this castle one day, definitely well worth it. We were so lucky to have seen that huge herd of deer, it really was quite the sight to see.
DeleteYay, you got your stay in a castle. Renovating a castle, what a huge project and kudos to him. I'm glad he manages to get some income from renting out rooms as he renovates them. This took me back as we got married in Dalhousie Castle, just outside Edinburgh in Scotland, in 1991 & stayed in the honeymoon suite at the top of a turret. It was an amazing day that we will always cherish. We had a piper who took the few children we had there through the secret passages. We could hear him playing the bagpipes as they went. He wouldn't let me go!! The castle is still there but unfortunately has become more commercialized, not quite the same when we visited a couple of years ago but still a lovely place & lovely people.
ReplyDeleteWe certainly did and it was was such a great visit. The visit felt very authentic compared to what most castle visits bercause this one was still being restored. We got to see some of the rooms that still haven't been fixed up and the ones that have look very much like what they might have done in their day, they weren't all modern looking, the furnishings that David found are very fitting with the time period of the castle. He has certainly spent a lot of time and money into restoring the castle, you can tell that he is putting his heart and soul into it.
DeleteWhat a lovely memory you have of your honeymoon, staying in a castle as well, especially when you add in the piper!