View from south west Digital image of E 15749 cn

Description View from south west Digital image of E 15749 cn

Date 18/6/2001

Collection Records of the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS), Edinbu

Catalogue Number SC 769290

Category On-line Digital Images

Copy of E 15749 CN

Scope and Content Keeper's House and Bothy, Allt-na-giubhsaich, Glen Muick, Balmoral Estate, Aberdeenshire, from the south-west These charming late 18th- or early 19th-century buildings stand within the shelter of trees overlooking a wild expanse of moorland. The two-storeyed keeper's house (left) is harled and painted, with a slated roof and stone-pedimented dormer windows that breach the eaves line. The bothy (right), a long, single-storeyed harled and painted cottage, has a large Victorian rustic-style porch supported by roughly hewn tree trunks. Prince Albert and Queen Victoria enjoyed the loneliness of Allt-na-giubhsaich, and spent nights there while on hunting expeditions deep into the wild and mountainous region to the south of Balmoral. The loneliness was comparative and applied only to the surroundings as the royal couple travelled with other members of the royal household as well as a retinue of servants, keepers and ghillies. It was, however, very different from the usual run of royal accommodation, and a place where they could live 'with the greatest simplicity and ease' away from the formality of the castle and 'without any state whatever'. The Balmoral estate was bought in 1852 by Prince Albert and Queen Victoria at their own expense as a Highland retreat from the stresses of London life. Prince Albert initiated many improvements, including the building of a new holiday home, Balmoral Castle, in 1853-5, and put forward plans for a model estate with new houses and offices for estate workers and tenants. Many of the original buildings were remodelled and restored, including Allt-na-giubhsaich, an isolated keeper's house and bothy in Glen Muick which was made habitable as a 'get-away' house. Source: RCAHMS contribution to SCRAN.

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/collection/769290

File Format (TIF) Tagged Image File Format bitmap