The actual lands controlled by the rulers at Balnagown Castle have varied in extent over the centuries. Clan lands could be gained by both conquest and through marriage. The lands of Balnagown granted to Hugh of Rarichies included Kilmuir, Logie, Pitmaduthy, Edderton, Kincardine, and Benmore. When Walter (3rd Laird ) married the daughter of the lawless Paul McTyre whose wealth was acquired by plunder and blackmail, the lands of Strathoykell, Strathcarron and Freewater were added coming as a dowry. The estates then stretched from east to west. By David the 13th laird's time they consisted of 48 properties. Scotsburn was added by Sir John Lockhart Ross. A ledger dated 1810 shows that the lands amounted to 500,000 acres.
Thus when the 21st Laird, Sir Charles Henry Augustus Frederick Lockhart Ross, came of age, he inherited an enormous estate extending from coast to coast with 3000 tenants and including some of the best farmland, and sporting estates in Scotland. They were still intact when he died in 1942 but only by dint of making Balnagown a ward of the Delaware court and creating complex American companies and corporations to avoid taxation for which actions he was outlawed by the British court and spent many years in exile.
His third wife Dorothy Mercado (died 1957) and her second husband, Francis de Moleyns (died 1964), proved no match for Sir Charles in dealing with the Inland Revenue or in managing the estates and between them gradually sold off most of the land including the sporting lodges, salmon rivers, shootings, hotels, a distillery and Bonar Fishing station. The remaining lands and properties, now reduced to 60,000 acres, were invested in an Allied Bank of Ireland Trust who formed the Ross Estates Company after de Moleyns' death. In 1978 Mr Mohamed Al Fayed added the Ross Estates to the castle he had purchased in 1972. Since then other land has been added and Balnagown Estates now consists of three estates - Balnagown Estate which contains most of the farmland as well as some woodland and sporting land, is made up of separate parcels around Balnagown Castle, Edderton and Ardgay; Inveroykell and Duchally Estates are mainly sporting estates, stretching north and west along the line of the River Cassley.
Since Hugh of Rarichies' day, the estates associated with Balnagown have undergone a series of cycles of neglect and improvement depending on which laird was in charge. The Rosses of the original Balnagown line indulged in too many clan feuds and nefarious adventures which were part and parcel of the times they lived in and when things were more peaceable the later ones who might have wished to develop their lands more were hidebound by debts largely accumulated by their predecessors. By and large the Halkhead and Lockhart Rosses proved better managers and introduced many improvements especially General Charles Ross of the Halkhead family and Sir John and General Sir Charles of the Lockhart Rosses. Things declined thereafter till the 21st Laird took over. His improvements were perhaps ahead of their time for Scotland. Also the arrogant, spoilt, vindictive side to his nature involved him continuously in litigations, undoubtedly contributing to the final decline of the estates after his death before Mr Al Fayed stepped in, saved the castle from ruin and transformed the estates by placing them on a secure financial footing.
