He sold his lands in Fermanagh to his younger brother James, Lord Balfour of Glenawley in 1615.

[3][4] In 1618/19 Captain Nicholas Pynnar reported that Balfour had begun his building at Castle-skeagh.

James Haire and his family ceased to occupy the castle after it was destroyed by an arson-based fire in 1803.

In Castle Balfour Demesne, slight surface evidence for a fosse between two banks was revealed after excavation to have been 2 m deep.

[7] It has the style of a Scottish castle and the building is thought to be the work of Lowland Scots masons.