The Manse, Balnakeil is a Grade B listed building in the Highland local planning authority area, Scotland. First listed on 20 December 1979. House. 1 related planning application.
The Manse, Balnakeil
- WRENN ID
- forbidden-moat-auburn
- Grade
- B
- Local Planning Authority
- Highland
- Constituency
- Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross MP: Jamie Stone (LD)
- Country
- Scotland
- Date first listed
- 20 December 1979
- Type
- House
- Address
- The Manse, Balnakeil, IV27 4PU
- OS grid reference
- NC 392 677
- Coordinates
- 58.56812, -4.76555
- Source
- Historic Environment Scotland listing
Description
The Manse in Balnakeil is a house built between 1785 and 1786, with a front addition added in 1865 and various other later extensions. Originally a two-storey, south-facing, three-bay house, it has been modified to form a roughly cruciform plan due to the later additions at the front and rear. The exterior is harled with dressed granite margins.
The original central entrance is now concealed by the 1865 two-storey, two-bay wing that serves as a drawing and dining room. This wing features a bipartite window in the centre of the ground floor on the south gable and a single window above, along with single gabletted dormers on the east and west sides. There is also a lean-to porch in the re-entrant area. At the rear, there is a further two-storey and attic, two-bay wing, as well as a single-storey service extension. The windows have 12-pane glazing, and a small mural sundial is located at the southwest angle of the original house. The building has coped end, ridge, and wallhead stacks, and is topped with slate roofs.
Inside, there is a re-used bolection moulded doorpiece dated 1727 at the original central entrance, which now opens off the hall. The first-floor drawing room, added in 1865, features a coved ceiling.
The property includes a walled garden, which is enclosed by coped rubble walls.
Local climate
The Manse, Balnakeil sits in one of the wettest parts of the UK, with an average of 1,530 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 99% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is greater than that of 99% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 13 freeze-thaw cycles a year, fewer than 87% of listed buildings. Of these, 11 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.2°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- Full EPC report — heating system, energy costs, size, glazing, construction etc.
- No sale records on file
- Related listed building consents — 1 application
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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