In 1317, King Robert the Bruce rewarded Sir
William Oliphant, Lord of Aberdalgie with a number of grants of land including Gasknes,
Newtyle, Kinpurnie, Auchtertyre, Balcrais, Muirhouse and Hazelhead. It is not known when the castle of Balcraig was constructed but it was superseded in 1575 when
Hatton Castle was erected by the 4th Lord Oliphant nearby. It has been suggested that Balcraig was of wooden construction but this is not supported by the fact that a number of boulder stones were ploughed up in the vicinity of the site of the old castle some fifty years ago (circa 1970). The size of the stones suggested that they were the foundations of a stone fortalice. There is also a diary record of the blowing up of the castle at Newtyle. Hatton Castle, although ruinous until it was restored in the 1980s, was still standing, rather, it had had some major repairs by its owners. The
Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland states that: "The ruins of Hatton Castle and the scanty vestiges of Balcraig have both been separately noticed". Since a wooden structure would not have survived from 1317 to 1884, the "scanty vestiges" visible must have been stone. ==References==