Blelack
Blelack (
- Dool Dool to Blelack, and Dool to Blelack's Heir, for Driving use fae the Seely Howe to the Cauld Hill O’ Fare
So goes the apparent curse on the Laird of Blelack House for instigating an exorcism on the "Fairies" resident in the Seely Howe (the location of Blelack House), 'howe' being a hollow or glen. The Cauld ('Cold') Hill O’ Fare is near Banchory, some miles further down the Dee Valley. Dool is the Doric dialect term roughly equivalent to 'Doom'. For a couple of centuries, the lairds did not seem to enjoy any particular good fortune, seemingly ending up always on the losing side.
Blelack House is situated 30 miles (48 km) west of Aberdeen, near the village of Logie Coldstone, 3 miles (4.8 km) north of the River Dee in the Cromar, a basin of agricultural land carved out of the Grampian foothills. Blelack is an anglicisation of the Gaelic Baile ailich meaning "village of the stone house". The prefix "Ble..." is found in the Outer Hebrides with regard to translations of Gaelic place names beginning Baile, in Ireland this would be "Bally..." .
The
There are, confusingly, two dates engraved onto the façade of the building, 1881 and 1892. There is some evidence that the current Blelack House is older, and these are renovation dates. Blelack House was burnt down in retribution after the
Images
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Blelak or Blelack 1654
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Blelack 1896
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Summer 2006
References
- ^ Michie, Rev. John Grant (1896). History of Logie Coldstone and the Braes of Cromar.
- Wyness, Fenton (1968). Royal Valley – the story of Aberdeenshire.
- "Blelack House". Retrieved 5 May 2007.
- "The Records of Aboyne" Aboyne library