Building record MHG6935 - 36-38 High Street, Nairn

Nairn had always played host to the town houses of the county lairds most notably the Roses of Kilravock, whose Kilravock town house figure 9 & 22.L was situated at the south end of the High Street on a site still marked by a curious plaque. The Latin motto on the plaque displays a resigned acceptance of fate:

All earthly things by turns we see
Becomes another's property
Mine now, must be another's soon
I know not whose, when I am gone
An earthly house is bound to none

This building (now 36 High Street) has demonstrated the potential for standing buildings also to preserve important archaeological and architectural evidence within their structures. The house is known to have been repaired in 1722. In 1893, the Latin inscription on the front of the building and an oak-panelled backroom were all that was thought to have survived. In 1961, the Ordnance Survey visited but noted that the building was entirely modern and that the panelled room had gone. In fact, the building is largely intact, at ground level anyway, with a large and impressive cellar at the rear. Essentially, the seventeenth-century, or earlier, building has been encased within a more modern structure. This is a good example of how historic old buildings can survive life on a modern High Street. <1>

<1> Dennison, E P, Coleman, R, 1999, Historic Nairn: the Scottish Burgh Survey, pp.69-70 (Text/Publication/Monograph). SHG23432.