BALQUHAIN (STLE 303 THIRD PERIOD .January 1566-7, that the Earl of Morton came to visit his cousin Patrick Douglas, and was met by Bothwell, whose castle of Hailes, on the other side of Traprain Law, is within a short distance of Whittingham, and by Secretary Lethington, whose castle of the same name is likewise in the FIG. 258. Whittingham Tower. View from the North- West neighbourhood, when the foul conspiracy for the murder of Darnley was first hatched and decided on. " And," says Tytler, referring to subse- quent events, " it was only a year and a half before that in this fatal house, the conference .had been held between Lethington, Bothwell, and Morton, in which the King's murder was determined. Bothwell was now a fugitive and an outlaw ; but his associates in guilt, the same Letbington and Morton, now received Moray at Whittingham^ and cordially sym- pathised with him when he expressed his horror for the crime, and his resolution to avenge it." BALQUHAIN CASTLE, ABERDEENSHIRE. This ruinous keep (Fig. 259) stands in the parish of Chapel of Garioch, about half a mile from the church, and two miles from Inveramsay Junc- tion, on the North of Scotland Railway. It was originally a quadrangular keep (Fig. 260), probably of the fifteenth century, which was destroyed in 1526 in the feuds between the Leslies (the proprietors) and their neighbours the Forbeses. The lower part of the walls is extremely thick, and has the deep recesses and the narrow loops then in use. The castle was rebuilt in 1 530 by Sir William Leslie, seventh Baron of Balquhain,
