Ordnance gazetteer of Scotland > Volume 1

BALEIRNIE
on the banks of the river Leven, paper-mills, a woollen
factory, extensive collieries, and a village called Balbirnie
Mills. Pop. of the village conjointly with that of Auch-
mity (1871) 403, (1881) 436.
Balbirnie, a hamlet in Euthven parish, Forfarshire,
near the Perthshire boundary, 2t miles NE of Meigle.
Balbithan, an estate, with a mansion, in Keith-hall
parish, Aberdeenshire, on the left bank of the Don, 1J
mile NNE of Kintore. The mansion, the property of
the Earl of Kintore, is a curious old structure ; was a
rendezvous of the Marquis of Montrose and his friends
in the times of the Covenanters ; and gave refuge to
several of the Pretender's adherents after Culloden. A
beech tree, girthing 14 feet at 1 foot from the ground, is
on the estate.
Balblair, a village in Eddertoun parish, Ross-shire,
5^ miles W by N of Tain. It has a post office under
Inverness, and a large distillery.
Balblair, a hamlet in Criech parish, Sutherland, on
the Kyle of Sutherland, 1 J mile NW of Bonar-Bridge.
Balblair, a spot in Nairn parish, Nairnshire, on the
top of a lofty terrace, near the coast, about 1 mile W by
S of the town of Nairn. It was the camping-ground of
the royal army on the eve of Culloden ; and it overlooks
all the route which the Highlanders had to take in
their proposed night attack.
Balbrogie, a hamlet in the Perthshire section of the
parish of Coupar- Angus.
Balbunnoch, a village in Longforgan parish, Perth-
shire, adjacent to Forfarshire, 4 miles W of Dundee.
It is conjoint with Mylnefield, which has a post office
under Dundee. A bleachfield was formerly in its neigh-
bourhood ; and a paper-mill now is there.
Balcail. See Balkail.
Balcaithly, an estate in Dunino parish, Fife. An
urn, supposed to be Roman, was exhumed in a field be-
longing to it in 1836.
Balcarres (Gael, laiU-carrais, ' town of the contest '),
a mansion in Kilconquhar parish, East Neuk of Fife,
| mile NNW of Colinsburgk. It stands, engirt by trees,
on a sunward slope, 300 feet above and 3 miles to the
N of the Firth of Forth, across whose waters it looks
away to the Bass, the Lammermuirs, and Edinburgh.
Originally built in 1595, in the Scoto-Flemish Gothic
of the period, it retains its fine dining-room, its turn-
pike stair, and its thick-walled bedchamber, ' Oliver
Cromwell's Room ; ' but otherwise was much enlarged
and altered in the first half of the present century. A
ruined ivy-clad chapel, hard by, erected about 1635,
serves as the family burial-place ; and, 200 yards to the
E, Balcarres Craig, a turreted rock of clinkstone, rises
abruptly from the Den Burn's deep ravine. The estate
was purchased in 1587 by the lawyer-statesman John
Lindsay (1552-9S), Lord Menmuir, second son of the
ninth Earl of Crawford, who in 1592 obtained a royal
charter uniting the lands of Balcarres, Balneill, and
Pitcorthie into a free barony. His second son, David,
the Rosicrucian (15S6-1641), became Lord Lindsay of
Balcarres in 1633 ; and his son, Alexander, feasted
Charles II. here in 1651, the year that he was created
Earl of Balcarres, and died an exile at Breda in 1659.
The third Earl, Colin (d. 1722), was a Jacobite, though
cousin by marriage to William of Orange, saw Claver-
house's ghost, and founded Colinsburgh ; the fifth Earl,
James (d. 1768), was 'the first that brought Fifeshire
"agriculture to any degree of perfection. ' His daughter,
Lady Ann Barnard (1750-1825), composed in 1771 Auld
Robin Gray, the name of the old Balcarres herdsman ;
and his eldest son, Alexander, sixth Earl (d. 1825), fought
a duel with the traitor Arnold, and in 1789 sold the
lands of Balcarres to a younger son, the Hon. Rt.
Lindsay (d. 1836). Title and lands were thus dissevered,
the former now being held by Jas. Ludovic Lindsay,
twenty-sixth Earl of Crawford and ninth of Balcarres
(b. 1847 ; sue. 1880 ; seat, Duneoht House) ; and the
latter by Sir Coutts Trotter Lindsay, second Bart, since
1821 (b. 1S24 ; sue. 1837), who is seventh in lineal
descent from Lord Menmuir, and owner of 4672 acres
in the shire, valued at £9619 per annum. See the late
BALDERNOCK
Earl of Crawford's Lives of the Lindsays (3 vols. , Lond.
1849).
Balcary, an old mansion, a baylet, a hill, and a head-
land in Berwick parish, Kirkcudbrightshire, on the
SW side of Auchencairn Bay, about 9 miles E of Kirk-
cudbright. The bay is an expansion of Auchencairn
Bay, 2 miles SE of Auchencairn village ; and was de-
signed by the projectors of the Ayrshire and Galloway
railway to be provided with a commodious artificial
harbour, in connection with a terminous of the railway.
The hill and the headland intervene between Balcary
Bay and the W of the entrance of Auchencairn Bay.
Balcaskie, a mansion in the SE angle of Carnbee
parish, Fife, 1 j mile NW of Pittenweem. A fine old
building with a park extending into Abercrombie
parish, it is the seat of Sir Robert Anstruther, fifth
Bart, since 1694, and owner of 2121 acres in the shire,
valued at £5116 per annum.
Balcastle, a hamlet and collieries in Slamannan parish,
Stirlingshire, near Slamannan station, 5f miles SSW
of Falkirk.
Balchristie, an estate, with a mansion, in Newburn
parish, Fife, 1J mile WSW of Colinsburgh. The
Culdees here had a church and lands, which went, by
deed of David I., to the monks of Dunfermline ; but
were afterwards vainly claimed by the prior and canons
of St Andrews.
Balcomie, an ancient castle, a farm-house now, in
Crail parish, Fife, 1 mile W of Fifeness, and If NNE
of Crail. It belonged in 1375 to a John de Balcomie ;
passed in the time of James IV. to the Learmonths, in
1705 to Sir William Hope, and afterwards to succes-
sively Scott of Scotstarvet and the Earl of Kellie. In
June 1538 it entertained Mary of Guise on her land-
ing at Fifeness to be married to James V. Originally
an edifice of great size and splendour, it was reduced
by the Earl of Kellie to only one wing, but it still is of
considerable size, and serves as a landmark to mariners.
A small cave near is falsely alleged to have been the
scene of the beheading of Constantin, King of the
Picts (863-77), by Northmen ; and a group of islets, J
mile NW of Fifeness, is called Balcomie Brigs. See part
ii. of Thos. Rodger's Kingdom of Fife (Edinb., n. d.).
Balconie, an estate, with a mansion, in Kiltearn parish,
Ross-shire. The mansion, f mile ESE of Evanton village,
is a castellated edifice, and was formerly a seat of the
Earls of Ross. Hugh Miller, in chap. vi. of his Scenes
and Legends, gives the weird tradition of the Lady of
Balconie.
Balcraig, a quondam ancient castle in Newtyle parish,
Forfarshire, a short distance S of the ruins of Hatton
Castle. Scarcely any traces of it remain. Some urns,
in a broken state, were, a number of years ago exhumed
about its site.
Balcruvie or Pitcruvie, an ancient castle, now re-
duced to one square tower in Largo parish, Fife, on
Keil Burn, 1-J mile N by W of Lower Largo village. It
was built by Sir John Lindsay, an ancestor of the Earls
of Crawford.
Balcurvie, a village in the SE of Markinch parish, Fife,
near Cameron Bridge station. A public school here,
with accommodation for ISO children, had (1879) an
average attendance of 86, and a grant of £59, 10s.
Baldermonocks, the ancient bishops' lands in Cadder
parish, Lanarkshire, comprehending aU the parish, ex-
cept the entailed estate of Cadder.
Baldernock (Gael, baile-dur-chnoc, ' town of the
stream at the knoll'), a hamlet and a parish of SW
Stirlingshire. The hamlet stands in the W of the
parish, 2J miles ENE of Milngavie station, and 74
miles N of its post-town Glasgow ; and comprises the
parish church (1795 ; 406 sittings), a Free church,
their manses, a school, and a few scattered cottages.
The parish also contains the village of Balmore, 2J
miles ESE. It is bounded N and NE by Campsie, S
by Cadder in Lanarkshire, SW and W by New Kil-
patrick, and NW by Strathblane ; and has an extreme
length from N to S of 2| miles, a breadth from E to W
of from 1J to 3J miles, and an area of 4411 \ acres, of
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