Old travel Blog photograph of Dirnanean house, part of a private, traditional Highland estate located near Enochdhu a small village located West of Kirkmichael, Perthshire, Scotland. A 1588 charter record states that Andrew Small was granted the lands of Dirnanean in Strathardle by John, the 5th Stewart Earl of Atholl. By the time James Small, born 1835, died 1900, inherited the estate on the death of his father, Patrick, Dirnanean had been passed from father to son for nine generations. When James Small died without a direct heir, the ownership of Dirnanean transitioned to a series of his nephews until Francis Keir Balfour, the owner of neighboring Kindrogan House, purchased the estate in 1926. A distant Small family cousin through his mother, Amelia Jane Keir, Francis Keir Balfour continued the Small family ownership of Dirnanean into the 1970s. The Smalls are a sept of the Scottish Clan Murray of Atholl. Queen Victoria passed through the lands of Dirnanean in 1865 and again in 1866, on her way from Balmoral Castle to Dunkeld via the Spittal of Glenshee. The visit in 1865 included a brief stop at Dirnanean House before a more extended visit at Kindrogan House. A number of notable individuals are descendants or related by marriage to the Smalls of Dirnanean.
Reverend Robert Blair, Scottish minister. Duncan Cameron, owner of The Oban Times newspaper and inventor of The " Waverley " nib pen; Mary Cameron, Scottish painter; General Sir Archibald Campbell, 1st Baronet, GCB, administrator of the colony of New Brunswick, Canada; General Sir John Campbell, 2nd Baronet, Campbell Baronetcy of New Brunswick, Canada; Sir Conrad Laurence Corfield, British official and a political secretary of Lord Mountbatten; Brigadier John Cecil Currie DSO MC, British Army Officer during WWII; William Purdie Dickson, Professor of Divinity at the University of Glasgow; Daniel Dow, traditional Scottish musician and composer; Sir John Ireland Falconer, former Lord Provost of Edinburgh, from 1944to 1947; Mrs. Alexander Fraser, aka Caroline Rosetta Small Fraser, Victorian era novelist; Sir Reginald Michael Hadow, British diplomat; Sir Archibald Hope, Scottish judge stylized Lord Rankeillor; Sir John Hope, 2nd Baronet Hope of Craighall, Scottish judge stylized Lord Craighall; Sir Thomas Hope, 1st Baronet Hope of Craighall, Advocate to King Charles I; Doctor James W. Inches, former Police Commissioner of Detroit, Michigan, America; Sheila Legge, Surrealist performance artist; John Lodwick, British novelist; Flora Macaulay, editor of The Oban Times Newspaper; John MacDonald of Garth, Canadian fur trader; Rolland Macdonald, Canadian lawyer and judge, James Macgregor, born 1808, died 1858, British politician and businessman; William McGillivray, fur trader in Canada; Andrew Munro, fellow, lecturer in mathematics and bursar at Queen's College, Cambridge, England; Sir William Nairne, Lord Dunsinane, 5th Baronet of Nairne; Monica Poole, English wood engraver; Doctor Charles Ransford, Fellow at the Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh and early advocate of homoeopathy; Patrick Francis Robertson, British politician and businessman; Alexander Small, Scottish army surgeon and correspondent of Benjamin Franklin; Charlotte Small, early Canadian explorer; Henry Beaumont Small, Canadian civil servant and author; James Small, Factor of forfeited Straun Estates; James Small, Laird of Dirnanean; Major General John Small, born 1726 died 1796, active in the American Revolutionary War; Doctor John Small, born 1823, died 1879, British Deputy Surgeon General; John Small, born 1828, died 1886, Librarian of Edinburgh University for 32 years; Lieutenant Colonel John James Snodgrass, born 1796, died 1841, British military officer and author; Charles Spalding, born 1783, died 1783, Edinburgh confectioner and improver of the diving bell; General the Honorable Sir Augustus Almeric Spencer, G.C.B., third son of Sir Francis Spencer, 1st Baron Churchill; The Reverend Canon Henry Spencer Stephenson, M.A. born 1871, died 1957, Chaplain to King George VI and Queen Elizabeth II; Joan V. Stiebel, MBE, Jewish refugee worker; David Thompson, born 1770, died 1857, early Canadian explorer; John Sen Inches Thomson, born 1845, died 1933, Scottish whaler and sealer, ship owner, captain and author; Brigadier General Sydney Frederick Williams, Royal Engineer.
All photographs are copyright of Sandy Stevenson, Tour Scotland, and may not be used without permission.
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