Burleigh Castle

PricingFreeFree for all visitors

Free entry for everyone

Entry

Free for everyone

Pricing details

Free entry for everyone; no membership card is needed.

ParkingNo car park

Arrive on foot, by bike or by public transport.

Parking details

Historic Scotland: there is no car park at Burleigh Castle and roadside parking is not recommended; visitors are asked to take care and be considerate of local residents when parking nearby. The castle stands on a bend of the A911 half a mile east of Milnathort, and reviewers who drove past had to turn round and park in a quiet residential street in the village.

Driving pin: Historic Scotland's own pin at the castle by the road, 5 m from the Google listing. Historic Scotland gives journey planners only; Milnathort is on bus routes from Kinross and Perth.

About

Burleigh Castle stands amid the flat fields of Kinross-shire half a mile east of Milnathort, a three-storey tower house of about 1500 at the corner of a once larger courtyard. Its delight is the corner tower of 1582, round at the base and square at the top and still roofed, added by Sir James Balfour of Pittendreich and Margaret Balfour, heiress of Burleigh, whose initials are carved on it. In 1707 Robert Balfour, later Lord Burleigh, was tried for shooting the schoolmaster who had married the woman he loved; he escaped from prison, by tradition hiding in a hollow ash tree, and the family lost the estate after he joined the Jacobite Rising of 1715. Only the tower house, the round-arched entrance and the corner tower survive, a grand front with nothing behind it. It opens on set days from April to September. There is no car park and roadside parking on the A911 is not recommended, so park considerately in Milnathort.

Check today’s timesSee all times

Burleigh CastleClosed for the winter (1 October to 31 March); reopens Thursday 1 April 2027, 09:30 – 17:30on Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and the first Saturday and Sunday of the month, last entry 17:00

Opening times may change at short notice.

Historic Scotland: '1 April to 30 September: Every Mon, Tue, Thu and Fri and first Sat and Sun of the month, 9.30am to 5.30pm. Last entry 5pm. 1 October to 31 March: Closed.' The grounds are gated; out of season the towers can be seen from the road. Historic Scotland no longer names a keyholder: older guides and a sign on the south-west tower door used to direct visitors to a key at a nearby house, and summer 2025 visitors went up the tower stairs.

A small ruin by a busy road: the three-storey tower house, the 1582 corner tower (still roofed) and the arched entrance survive, with stairs inside the towers. No toilets, shop or other facilities.

Photo: Burleigh Castle's roofed corner tower, round below and square above, beside the ruined tower house and the boundary wall along the road. Leslie Barrie, CC BY-SA 2.0. Source: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Burleigh_Castle_-_geograph.org.uk_-_4411887.jpg. Licence: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0. Resized and cropped for display; derivatives retain the source licence.