Baltersan Castle is a ruined L-plan tower house located near Maybole, Scotland. The site was originally occupied by Baltersan House, owned by Egidia Blair, Lady Row, who died in 1530. After her death, the house was demolished. The remains of her tomb can be seen in nearby Crossraguel Abbey. Her will survives and shows she was a generous benefactor to the Abbey, relatives, friends and neighbours. The inscription above the door tell us that the existing tower-house was built on the site in 1584, the work of John Kennedy of Pennyglen (near Maybole) and Margaret Cathcart, his spouse.
In 1721, the castle passed into the hands of Captain Hugh Arbuthnot, cousin to John Kennedy of Baltersan. By the middle of the 18th century, the castle had become abandoned and remains so to the present day.
The castle is a three-storey L-plan castle with an attic and garret. Its walls measure1.2 m in thickness. It has a vaulted ground floor and ashlar turrets on the northwestern and southeastern angles that are provided with gun loops.
References:Visby Cathedral (also known as St. Mary’s Church) is the only survived medieval church in Visby. It was originally built for German merchants and inaugurated in 1225. Around the year 1350 the church was enlarged and converted into a basilica. The two-storey magazine was also added then above the nave as a warehouse for merchants.
Following the Reformation, the church was transformed into a parish church for the town of Visby. All other churches were abandoned. Shortly after the Reformation, in 1572, Gotland was made into its own Diocese, and the church designated its cathedral.
There is not much left of the original interior. The font is made of local red marble in the 13th century. The pulpit was made in Lübeck in 1684. There are 400 graves under the church floor.