History of the Fife Pitcairns

THE LINDSAYS OF THE BYRES. 29
appears as a witness in 1399 to a charter of William de Scott
de Balwearie, granting to his cousin Philip of Halket, laird of
Ballingall, a third part of the lands of Pitferraine, &c.
Henry Pitcarne of Drongy and Pitcarne is witness to a
charter by Sir William Scott of Balwearie, Knight, to the
church of St Salvador, in the city of St Andrews, on the
nth September 1514. Confirmed by the King, James V. 1
Sir William Scott of Balwearie had the lands of
Strathmiglo, including with others Eastern and Western
Pitlour. These lands belonged first to the Crown, but in
1 160 Malcolm IV. granted them to Duncan, sixth Earl of
Fife, on the marriage of that nobleman with Ada, the king's
niece. They remained with the Earls of Fife until 1424,
although Sibbald says the lands were held under the Earls
of Fife by the Scotts of Balwearie from about 1251. In the
Exchequer Rolls, 14, p. 80, it is said : " Sir William Scott
of Balwearie, Knight, was councelour of James IV., King
of Scottes, and as said, a gentilman well learnyd." He
accompanied James IV. to Flodden in 1513, and had to sell
some of his lands as ransom, and they were eventually
bought from Sir James Scott by a Pitcarne of Pitcarne,
though a Pitcarne had some of the Pitlour lands as far
back as 1504, which is described later, in the account of
the Pitlour branch of the Pitcarne family.
Killerny Castle, which belonged to the Scots of Balwearie,
is thus described : —
On the eminence above the picturesque gorge of Saline Dean,
at the south-west extremity of Saline Hill, are the ruins of Killerny
Castle, which belongs, with the neighbouring property, to Aytoun
of Inchdairnie. In former days it seems to have been possessed
by the Scotts of Balwearie, of whom was Sir Michael Scott, the re-
nowned knight and wizard.
Indeed Killerny Castle was known formerly as the Castle of
Balwearie. The ruins now consist only of the fragments of two
towers, of which the southern is said to be more recent, and to
have borne the date of 1592.
There used to be connected with it a large vaulted apartment,
1 Reg. Mag. Sig., lib. xix. No. 56.