The Square, Balmacara is a Grade B listed building in the Highland local planning authority area, Scotland. First listed on 25 March 1971. 6 related planning applications.
The Square, Balmacara
- WRENN ID
- scattered-postern-lake
- Grade
- B
- Local Planning Authority
- Highland
- Constituency
- Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire MP: Mr Angus MacDonald (LD)
- Country
- Scotland
- Date first listed
- 25 March 1971
- Address
- The Square, Balmacara, IV40 8DJ
- OS grid reference
- NG 805 282
- Coordinates
- 57.29229, -5.64296
- Source
- Historic Environment Scotland listing
Description
The Square comprises an early 19th century, roughly U-shaped court flanked by a farmhouse, steading, and various ancillary buildings constructed later.
The farmhouse is a two-storey, six-bay structure, now divided into two dwellings, with a harled exterior. Some original 12-pane sash windows remain, accompanied by corniced ridge stacks and a piended slate roof. Some modern glazing has been introduced.
The steading consists of a two-storey, seven-bay range constructed of white-washed rubble, with a central square tower rising one stage above the roofline. The lower stage of the tower features honey-comb dressed ashlar, transitioning to plain ashlar above, with dividing band courses marking each stage. Round-headed, keystoned doorways are located at ground and first floor levels, with the first floor doorway being taller and showing evidence of a former hoist mechanism above. Three blind square flightholes are present on each face of the tower at the upper stage, sheltered by a wide eaved pyramidal slate roof topped with a ball finial. Cart bays are positioned at the rear, alongside a much-altered Lochalsh type hay barn. A small, vaulted ice house is set into a bank to the rear of the house. There is no evidence of any pigeon accommodation within the tower. The ice house is depicted on an Ordnance Survey map dated 1872.
Local climate
The Square, Balmacara sits in one of the wettest parts of the UK, with an average of 2,130 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 41 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 78% of listed buildings. Of these, 28 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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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- Related listed building consents — 6 applications
- 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
Matched applications, energy data and sale records are assembled automatically and may contain errors. Flag incorrect data.