Blairadam

A historical perspective, drawn from the Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Survey of Scottish Topography, Statistical, Biographical and Historical, edited by Francis H. Groome and originally published in parts by Thomas C. Jack, Grange Publishing Works, Edinburgh between 1882 and 1885.

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Blairadam, a station, with a post office, having money order, savings' bank, and telegraph departments, in Cleish parish, S Kinross-shire, on the Kinross-shire section of the North British, 3 miles SSE of Loch Leven (Kinross) station, and 10¾ NNE of Dunfermline. Blairadam House, 1¼ mile SSW of the station, stands in a large and finely wooded park, on the SE slope of a hill, which rises 707 feet above sea-level. Early in last century Blair estate was purchased, and Blairadam House built by the architect Wm. Adam, father of the still more eminent architects, Robert (1728-92) and James (d. 1794). His grandson, the Right Hon. Wm. Adam (1751-1839), lord chief commissioner of the jury court in Scotland, was a lifelong friend of Sir Walter Scott, with him and seven others forming in 1816 the Blairadam Club. Its members ` met on a Friday; spent the Saturday in a ride to some scene of historical interest within an easy distance (to one such in the dog-days of 1819 we owe Scott's Abbot); enjoyed a quiet Sunday at home, duly attending divine worship at the Kirk of Cleish, not Cleishbotham; gave Monday morning to another antiquarian excursion; and returned to Edinburgh in time for the courts of Tuesday '-chap. l. of Lockhart's -Life of Scott. The next holder of the estate was Adm. Sir Chas. Adam, M.P. (d. 1854); the next, the great Whig whip, the Right Hon. Wm. Pat. Adam (1823-81), M. P. for Clackmannan and Kinross shires 1859 -80, Lord of the Trea sury 1865-66 and 1868-73, Chief Commissioner of Works 1873-74 and 1880, Governor of Madras 1880-81. His son, Chs. Elphinstone Adam (b. 1859) is owner now of 2869 acres, valued at £3085 per annum.

An accompanying 19th C. Ordnance Survey map is available, or use the map tab to the right of this page.

Note: This text has been made available using a process of scanning and optical character recognition. Despite manual checking, some typographical errors may remain. Please remember this description dates from the 1880s; names may have changed, administrative divisions will certainly be different and there are known to be occasional errors of fact in the original text, which we have not corrected because we wish to maintain its integrity. This information is provided subject to our standard disclaimer

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