Monument record MHG49910 - Lower Balmenach

NMRS Report: (21/02/2007 13:54:36)
NJ02NE 62 NJ 07709 27831

The remains of this farmstead are situated in a field of pasture about 50m E of Stalkers Cottage and immediately W of the cutting of a disused railway. In comprises a range measuring at least 18m from NNW to SSE by up to 7.7m transversely over walls reduced to low, grass-grown banks. The NNW end of the building has been truncated and the interior contains two compartments, the NNW one set at a slightly lower level than the SSE one.
This may be the building depicted roofed, but on a N and S axis, on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map (Elginshire 1874, sheet XXXIII). A limekiln, which stood about 45m NNW of the range was probably destroyed when the adjacent gravel-pit was dug. Lower Balmenach is recorded in the Ordnance Survey Name Book (Elginshire No. 5, p.196) as 'a farm steading consisting of a dwelling house and an outhouse, both are thatched and in good condition. Property of the Earl of Seafield'. Neither the range nor the limekiln is shown on the 2nd edition of the map (1905, sheet XXXIII.NW).
Visited by RCAHMS (JRS) 28 September 2006.