Image Details
The sun was directly behind me casting a horizontal beam of warm light directly onto this scene. However, Within moments of taking this shot the sun had dropped below a hill behind me (An Ard), it was as if someone had just switched the light off and the scene became dull and lifeless.
The house is Flowerdale House in Gairloch, long time seat of the Gairloch MacKenzies. The grounds in which it is situated, also called Flowerdale, is the starting or finishing place for several enjoyable walks. If finishing your walk at Flowerdale it is also the site of the Old Inn at which one can enjoy good food and drink to replenish the energy expended on your walk.
Flowerdale House was built in 1738, the first house in the area to have a slated roof, prior to which an earlier building, known as Tigh Dige, was the home of the Gairloch MacKenzies. J H Dixon's 'Gairloch and Guide to Loch Maree published in 1886 has this to say about Flowerdale House and the earlier Tigh Dige;
The old Tigh Dige and its gardens and outbuildings stood in the field below Flowerdale House. The Tigh Dige itself was, as its name implies, a house in a ditch or a moat. Its remains still existed up to the time of the late Sir Francis Mackenzie (1798-1843), Bart. of Gairloch, in the centre of this field, but agricultuarl operations have now entirely obliterated them. Simon Chisholm, at Flowerdale, remembers them well. The lines of the garden walls can still be traced in the part of the fild lying to the east.
This was the home of Hector Roy MacKenzie, the founder of the family in the latter part of the fifteenth century. The Tigh Dige is said to have been originally a turf hut, with a roof made of sticks and divots. Kenneth Mackenzie, the sixth laird of Gairloch, erected on the same site, within the same moat, about the middle of the seventeenth century, a more substantial building which was called the Stank House or Moat House, and continued to be the home of the Gairloch family until 1738, when Sir Alexander Mackenzie, Bart., the ninth laird of Gairloch, erected the present west coast residence of the family, which he named Flowerdale House.
Since 1738 the house has had several additions, the most recent taking place in 1904. Osgood Mackenzie (1842-1922), writing in 1922, explained the origin of the name Flowerdale. He said that the name was given by tourists on seeing the profusion of wild flowers in the Baile Mor Glen (Big Town or Village) but that during his life the house was only ever called Tigh Dige and the place in which it was situated Am Baile Mor.
North-west Highland Place Names
The landscape of the North-west Highlands and the Gaelic language are intimately connected. Other languages have contributed to the richness of our place names, notably Norse, but the North-west Highlands have for centuries been a Gaelic landscape. In listing the meanings of place names I have relied on authoritative sources wherever possible. For further information about sources please refer to North-west Highland Place Names in the main menu.
An Ard;, Gairloch, adjoining An Dun, Gaelic; ‘the promontory.
Flowerdale; Refers to the area in Gairloch around Flowerdale House. According to Professor Watson the Gaelic name is Baile Mór which he says translates as ‘Big-stead’. To me this implies it is referring to Flowerdale House, the seat of the Mackenzies of Gairloch, originally built in 1738 and at that time it was called Tigh Dìge, ‘the Moat House’. Professor Watson then goes on to say that at the time of writing his book ‘Place Names of Ross and Cromarty’ (1904) the house is called Tigh Dìge nan Gorm Leac, that is ‘Moat House of the blue flags’, i.e., roof slates, it was the first house in the area to be roofed with slates. Osgood Mackenzie (1842-1922), writing in 1922, explained the origin of the name Flowerdale. He said that the name was given by tourists on seeing the profusion of wild flowers in the Baile Mor Glen (Big Town or Village) but that during his life the house was only ever called Tigh Dige and the place in which it was situated Am Baile Mor.
Gairloch; Gaelic, village named after the loch of the same name, Loch Gairloch, An Gearr-loch, the short loch.
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