Meikle Kildrummie

Meikle Kildrummie is an L-plan house built sometime between the later 17th century and mid-18th century, with 19th century additions. It comprises a two-storey, four-bay main house with an early 19th century single-storey, three-bay cottage at right angles. The whole is of stone construction, harled with painted margins. There is a slightly off-centre entrance opening to the main house with a cornice above and a round-headed entrance door with small square windows flanking it.

The window openings are in a variety of sizes with mixed glazing patterns, predominantly four-pane glazing to the front elevation. There are three dormer windows above the roof eaves on the rear (southwest) pitch of the single-storey cottage roof. The roofs throughout are covered in grey slates with crowstepped gables and end chimneystacks to the earlier section of the house. The single-storey cottage range has straight skews and end chimneystacks.

Historical Background

East and West Kildrummy are both marked on Timothy Pont's map of around 1583-1614 and on Robert Gordon's map of around 1636-52. The slightly later Atlas of Scotland by Blaeu of 1654 shows a settlement marked South Kildrummy in roughly the same location as the house currently occupies, north of the River Nairn between Broadley and Kilravock. On William Roy's map of 1747-52, there is a house clearly marked as "Kildrummie House" with accompanying grounds. This map evidence and the design and style of the house suggest Meikle Kildrummie was constructed sometime between the mid-17th century and the mid-18th century.

Meikle Kildrummie was historically part of the Kilravock estate and was owned by the Rose family. In the mid-18th century, it was used as a Dower House by the Roses. The principal seat of the Rose family was Kilravock Castle to the west.

Robert Burns visited the area in the autumn of 1787 and, with a letter of introduction from Henry Mackenzie, visited Elizabeth Rose, 19th Baroness of Kilravock (1747-1815) at Kilravock Castle. She was a literary critic, author and prolific letter writer. Burns accompanied Elizabeth Rose and Mrs Grant, the wife of the minister of Cawdor, to Meikle Kildrummie where Lady Brae and Miss Rose (Elizabeth's mother-in-law and sister-in-law) lived. An inventory taken a few years before Burns' visit lists the works held at the library at Kildrummie, including Pope's Letters, the Tatler, the works of Milton, Shenstone, Prior and Dryden, as well as plays, pamphlets and songs.

The 1851 census and contemporary newspaper reports show that Meikle Kildrummie was operating as a farm by the earlier decades of the 19th century. It is recorded as the principal farm on the Kilravock estate in 1860.

Meikle Kildrummie is first shown in detail on the 1st Edition Ordnance Survey map of 1866-68 as an L-shaped house with extensive farm buildings over a track to the northeast of the house. The 2nd Edition map of 1904 shows some infill at the corner where the single-storey cottage meets the earlier section of the house.

The Ordnance Survey Name Book of 1869 describes the property as one of the largest farm steadings in the area, a large site comprising a two-storey house with two Courts of Offices and some timber sheds, all owned by Major Rose of Kilravock Castle. The mid-19th century tenant of Meikle Kildrummie was Robert Anderson who, on an improving lease, converted the mossy land into arable fields. Anderson went on to become a leading agriculturalist in the County of Nairn. The census returns between 1871 and 1901 show the Macintyre family farmed Meikle Kildrummie for the latter half of the 19th century.

The house and farm remained part of the Kilravock estate until the 1970s, after which it was sold and became a private home.