Blairdow

NJ02SW 52 NJ 02444 23957.

This farmstead is situated at the edge of an area of scrubby woodland 700m SSW of Auchernack. It comprises a range, measuring 35m in length overall, and a small structure immediately W of its S end, both reduced to grass-grown footings. The range contains a dwelling at its S end, which has an entrance in its E side and a fireplace in its N end, and two outshots, each with a single entrance on the E. The small building, which measures 4.3m from E to W by 3.6m transversely, has an entrance in its S side. A limekiln, now tree-grown, has been built into a steep, W-facing slope 40m W of the range. The kiln-pot is rectangular on plan, measuring at least 2.5m from E to W by 1.9m transversely internally and up to 2m in depth. The W end of the kiln, in which the draw-hole would have been situated, has collapsed.

The range and another building immediately to the E, of which there is now no trace, are depicted roofed on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Inverness-shire 1874, sheet XLVIA). The Ordnance Survey Name Book (Inverness-shire, Book 1, p.30) records Blairdow as 'A Croft house with suitable out offices, one storey high thatched, in good repair, the property of the Earl of Seafield'.

The small building immediately W of the S end of the range is first shown (roofed) on the 2nd edition of the map (1902, sheet XLVIA), by which time the only other part of the steading that was still roofed was the dwelling.

Visited by RCAHMS (JRS, LM) 22 August 2006.