Now it’s T at the Castle as festival gets a new venue

SCOTLAND’S biggest music festival is being moved to the grounds of a 19th- century castle.

After 18 years at the disused Balado airfield in Kinross-shire, T in the Park is to move to the Strathallan Castle estate in Perthshire.

A deal has been struck to shift the festival next year following health and safety concerns about an underground oil pipeline at the current site.

Geoff Ellis, head of organiser DF Concerts, said Strathallan was set to become ‘one of the most beautiful festival sites in the UK’.

The estate is about three miles from Auchterarder and within an hour of Glasgow and Edinburgh. The castle and estate have been owned by the Roberts family since 1910.

The Health and Safety Executive had raised objections to Balado’s proximity to the BP Forties pipeline running from the North Sea to a processing plant near Grangemouth.

Mr Ellis said: ‘We’ve had 18 tremendous years at Balado but now we’re moving on to pastures new – this time with a castle overlooking the site!

‘The landscape is stunning and it has a fantastic natural amphitheatre which will lend itself beautifully to the main stage.

‘Obviously, we’re sad to leave Kinross. We’ll miss the local area hugely, we’ve built up some fantastic relationships and a great deal of fond memories there.

‘However, we’re very excited about this new chapter of T in the Park’s journey.’