Blair Castle hosts conferences, board meetings, gala dinners, product launches, private parties and weddings for groups from a board meeting of 20 up to 300 guests. The castle stands on Atholl Estates in Blair Atholl, Highland Perthshire, about an hour and a half by road from both Edinburgh and Glasgow.
Seminars and company events
The castle runs meetings, incentive groups, gala dinners and launches in a mix of historic interiors and a contemporary hall. A boardroom meeting for 20 fits in the Library, while a full plenary of 300 fits in the Victorian Ballroom. The estate adds group activities to a program: Highland Games, foraging, archery, guided bike and walking tours, castle tours and falconry displays. Teams with a corporate social responsibility goal can book a hedge planting session on the estate. Live music can be arranged, including Scottish dancing, a fiddler, a harpist or a pipe band in front of the castle, and the Bechstein grand piano is available to approved players. Each event is quoted individually.
Weddings and receptions
Civil and religious ceremonies take place in the Ballroom (up to 300), the State Dining Room (up to 75) or the Library (up to 40), and outdoor settings in the grounds are also offered. Guests arrive along a red carpet through the baronial entrance hall and a long corridor to the Ballroom. The estate also offers lodge weddings and outdoor "wild" weddings, and a beauty room on the estate can look after the bridal party.
Rooms and capacities
The Victorian Ballroom measures 23.6 by 10.7 meters plus a stage, and takes 300 theatre style or 60 to 220 for dinner. It has a dance floor, two open fires and a modern lighting system. The Banvie Hall, 16.7 by 9.6 meters, adjoins it through a concealed door and works for registration, drinks, exhibitions and breakouts, with a glass front facing the grounds and hills. The State Dining Room, 10.9 by 7.9 meters, has Georgian plasterwork and seats 50. The Library, 7.5 by 4.5 meters, is closed to day visitors and suits 20 around a board table or 40 for drinks. The Front Hall can hold a drinks and canapé reception for 40. Only artificial candles are allowed inside the castle.
Accommodation
There are no guest bedrooms in the castle. The estate rents self-catering lodges and cottages and runs Blair Castle Caravan Park, and the events team can recommend local hotels for larger groups.
Catering
Food is supplied by a panel of approved caterers selected by the castle, and the events team coordinates menus, wine and the rest of the event logistics.
History and setting
Blair Castle has been the seat of the Atholl family for more than seven centuries and was enlarged and adapted over some 750 years. The visitor route covers 30 rooms of 18th-century interiors and Scots Baronial architecture. The Ballroom was designed by David Bryce, completed in 1876 for the 7th Duke of Atholl, and still hosts the annual ball of the Atholl Highlanders. The 18th-century grounds include a nine-acre walled garden, a wooded grove, a Gothic folly, a ruined kirk and a deer park.
Getting there
The castle is in Blair Atholl, near Pitlochry (postcode PH18 5TL), around 1 h 30 by road from Edinburgh and from Glasgow. Blair Atholl has a railway station on the Highland line.
