Dirnanean House: A Highland Estate in Scotland
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.8
- Popularity
- Very Low
- Country
- United Kingdom
- Primary era
- Unclassified
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Unclassified
- Civilizations
- Unclassified
- Site type
- Domestic
- Remains
- Park
On this page11 sections
History
Dirnanean House is a private traditional Highland estate in the United Kingdom, near Enochdhu in Scotland. Its lands lie in Strathardle, within Moulin parish, Blairgowrie, and form part of a historic estate landscape beside the Cateran Trail.
The Small family estate
A charter of 1588 records that Andrew Small received the lands of Dirnanean from John, the fifth Stewart Earl of Atholl. The property remained with the Small family for nine generations, passing from father to son before James Small inherited it after the death of his father, Patrick.
James Small lived from 1835 to 1900. He died without a direct heir, after which Dirnanean passed successively to several of his nephews. The Smalls of Dirnanean belonged to a sept, or family group associated with a Scottish clan, of Clan Murray of Atholl. Their heraldic tradition included a palm-branch crest and the motto “Do not anger.” A gold button carrying the palm crest and motto was found while a garden plot on the estate was being dug.
The estate also entered Scotland’s musical tradition. In 1790, the Kirkmichael musician Robert Petrie, who lived from 1767 to 1830, published Highland pieces in Petrie’s Collection of Strathspey Reels & County Dances. Among their titles was “Mrs. Small of Dirnanean,” associating the estate with the musical culture of the region.
Ownership in the twentieth century
In 1926, Francis Keir Balfour purchased Dirnanean. He owned neighbouring Kindrogan House and was a distant cousin of the Small family through his mother, Amelia Jane Keir. His ownership continued the Small connection with the estate into the 1970s, although Dirnanean is now privately owned by someone unrelated to the family.
The steading house, lime kiln, and shepherd’s house are Category B listed buildings. In Scotland, this designation identifies a historic building of regional or more than local importance because of its architectural or historical interest.
Royal journeys and the estate landscape
Queen Victoria, who was Britain’s monarch from 1837 to 1901, passed through Dirnanean in 1865 and 1866 while travelling between Balmoral Castle and Dunkeld by way of the Spittal of Glenshee. During the 1865 journey she briefly stopped at Dirnanean House before making a longer visit to Kindrogan House. In 1866, the travelling party took tea at a place between the two estates.
A plaque marks the place associated with the 1866 tea stop. Near the picnic location, Dirnanean House now provides a lunch and shelter hut for walkers. The estate’s Victorian associations also include an eagle kept beside the Dirnanean Burn for 37 years until its death in 1908. Estate workers fed the bird mainly on game after it had been taken as a young bird from a nest near Kirkton of Glenisla. Its popularity made it a Perthshire attraction, and postcards of the eagle were issued to draw Victorian travellers to the area.
Remains
The designed garden
Dirnanean’s traditional Highland garden comprises about 1.5 hectares of planted garden and 7 hectares of policies, the managed grounds surrounding a principal house and its associated land. The garden lies at roughly 1,000 feet above sea level and includes a front lawn, a walled garden, a greenhouse, an estate kitchen garden with an orchard, and a potager, a formal vegetable and herb garden that may also include ornamental planting.
Summer house and lawn
A refurbished summer house stands on the front lawn. Its turntable allows the entire structure to be pivoted toward the sunlight as it moves across the lawn. A Wellingtonia, Sequoiadendron giganteum, stands behind the summer house at the edge of the lawn. The tree is estimated to have been planted around 1870. Other recorded elements of this part of the garden include a fowl house, barns, and wild foxgloves.
Kitchen garden and garden museum
The estate kitchen garden includes an orchard, greenhouse, and potager. A small museum of garden tools found during the refurbishment of the garden and grounds preserves objects connected with the cultivation and maintenance of the estate landscape.
The Dirnanean Burn
The Allt Doire-nan-Eun, known in English as the Dirnanean Burn, flows south from the high Dirnanean hills through a deep wooded gorge toward the River Ardle. The stream has several cascades and a small island. A walking trail follows the burn through the estate, with the burn walk incorporating a folly, a creature stone, and a field boulder.
Former eagle cage
Partial remnants of the former eagle cage survive beside the burn walk. They relate to the captive eagle that was kept beside the stream for 37 years and died in 1908, becoming a local attraction during the Victorian period.
The Ard-fhuil grave
Near the former carriage entrance of Dirnanean House, close to Enochdhu, is a grave traditionally identified with a Pictish warrior called Ard-fhuil. The Picts were the people and culture of northern Britain during the first millennium AD. Local tradition describes Ard-fhuil as a giant who gave his name to the surrounding district of Strathardle.
Nothing at the grave indicates that it once formed part of a larger structure. A standing stone may previously have carried an inscription, but weathering has erased it. Another local tradition claims that the laird of Dirnanean buried his horse there as a Victorian garden amusement. This account remains uncertain.
