History

Blackcraig Castle is a Baronial mansion house in Perthshire, Scotland, close to the towns of Ballintium and Blairgowrie. It was built in 1856 by Patrick Allan Fraser, a prominent Scottish artist and architect, and is designated as a Class B-listed building, with its walled garden A-listed. It has undergone extensive renovations/modernisation in recent years to return it to its full former glory and remains one of the finest examples of Baronial architecture in Scotland.

Surveys suggest that, originally occupying the site of Blackcraig Castle was a 16th-century tower house thought to be the property of the Maxwells’, who were in possession of the barony of Ballmacreuchy by 1550.

Patrick Allan Fraser of Hospitalfield, Arbroath purchased the estate of Blackcraig from the trustees of Robert Rattray in 1847, before embarking on the extension and renovation of the tower house in 1856, with the addition of a bridgehouse and gatehouse. The original tower house stood three storeys in height and the masonry is of lime-mortared rubble, readily distinguishable from the 19th-century extensions.

Fraser continued to alter and extend Blackcraig until the 1880’s when ill health halted further progress. It became part of the Hospitalfield Arts Trust after his death in 1890 and was later sold and run as a guest house for a number of years.

The current owners have been renovating Blackcraig and its policies since 2013 with a view to returning it to its former splendour.