Cabrach Lives

Once a busy community, Aldivalloch, in the Upper Cabrach was an important crossroads over the hills west to Glenlivet on the Staplar Road and a main route south through Glenbucket. The farms and houses of Meadow Cottage, Largue, Hillhead of Largue, Auld Bells, Keepers Cottage, Bowmans houses, Pisgah and Leterfoury could all be considered as […]

Aldunie is a farm in the Upper Cabrach. It is still a living part of the Cabrach landscape and farmed by the Sheed family who can date their roots in the Cabrach back to the early 1700s. Martin and Marianne, along with their two boys, live and work Aldunie continuing on the family connection to […]

Several Cabrach placenames like Ardluie have connections to cattle. Droving was an important part of the economy across the Highlands for centuries. Black cattle were reared and sold in large yearly markets or ‘trysts’ at Crieff and Falkirk in central Scotland. The Cabrach landscape was once marked by a network of ancient drovers’ routes and […]

The farms and houses of Meadow Cottage, Largue, Hillhead of Largue, Auld Bells, Keepers Cottage, Bowmans houses, Pisgah and Leterfoury could all be considered as part of the Aldivallaoch ‘toun’. It was an important crossroads over the hills west to Glenlivet on the Staplar Road and a main south route through Glenbucket.

Bridgend was once the bustling centre of the lower Cabrach. In the late 1800s there were eight tradesmen at Bridgend including two shoemakers, a tailor, a dressmaker, a merchant, a weaver, a joiner and the only resident blacksmith in the Cabrach. The Post and Telegraph Office was also located here which made it a centre […]

The farm of Broomknowes was originally one of the tenanted holdings of Badchier but by 1824, estate rent rolls show it as a distinct and separate farm. Broomknowes was known locally as ‘The Bink’, from the Scots meaning ‘a bench or shelf’. Family legend has it that the name came from the hospitality given to […]

The Buck is the most prominent of all of the hills in the Cabrach. Its conical shape makes it instantly recognisable. The is only one hill higher than the Buck, and that is Cook’s Cairn. There are several names associated with Buck 1765 – Cruickshank 1784 – Fettas 1804 – McHardy 1824 – Souter 1975 […]

The other part of the name ‘Charroch’ may come from ‘Davach’ or ‘dabhach’ in Gaelic, referencing to an ancient Scottish measure of land. The earliest record of Inverharroch goes back to the 700s when the land was granted as one of three ‘davochs’ in the Cabrach. It was part of a barony in the 1300s […]

The main road through the Cabrach passes by the house of the Nether Ardwell, which is much more sheltered. In the early 1800s there were thirteen dwellings at Nether Ardwell and there is still a community here although it is now much smaller.

Shenval may be one of the oldest settlements in the Cabrach. The farm sits on an exposed hill with a great vantage point westward along the river valley. The Cabrach was a main route between the powerful Provinces of Mar and Moray. In 1296, King Edward I of England invaded Scotland and may have stayed […]

Formerly known as The Richmond Hotel and locally known as ‘the Airdwell’   The Grouse Inn has had several names. It has been known locally as the ‘Airdwell’ but in the 1800s it was also known ‘Da Watt’s’ or ‘Johnnie Watts’. The original building was a merchant’s shop run by a man named Patrick Gordon. […]