| Blairmore School | |
|---|---|
| Location | |
 | |
| , Scotland | |
| Information | |
| Type | Private Boarding school |
| Motto | Capta Majora (Latin: "Strive for better things") |
| Established | 1947 |
| Closed | 1993 |
| Gender | Co-educational |
| Age | 8to 13 |
| Colour(s) | Navy blue |
Blairmore School was an independent boarding preparatory school in Glass near Huntly, Aberdeenshire until its closure in 1993. The site is now owned and used by a Christian organisation called Ellel Ministries International [1] as a prayer, training and healing retreat centre.
Blairmore School was established in 1947 as an independent prep school for boys aged 8–13 by Colonel D.R. Ainslie D.S.O., B.A., a keen educationalist, Cambridge graduate and retired Seaforth Highlander. The school turned co-ed in 1975 and closed in 1993.[ citation needed ]
Blairmore had its own tartan. [2]
Blairmore House, the former school's premises, is a Victorian country house set amid 50 acres (200,000 m2) of park and woodland beside the River Deveron, 6 miles (9.7 km) from Huntly, 40 miles (64 km) from Aberdeen and 60 miles (97 km) from Inverness. The house was designed by the architect Alexander Marshall Mackenzie [3] and was built in 1884 as a private house for Alexander Geddes, a wealthy businessman and great-great grandfather of the former British Prime Minister David Cameron. Cameron's father, Ian Donald Cameron, was born in the house in 1932. Geddes made his fortune in Chicago in the US in the trading of grain in the 1850s, and a safe belonging to him which survived the Great Fire of Chicago was installed in the house's Billiard Room. During the Second World War it served as GHQ Home Forces for some of the Auxiliary Units based in Aberdeenshire and had a training area within the grounds of the house and nearby land. Auxunit Patrols was a special force consisting of between six and eight men trained in the utmost secrecy to a high standard. In the event of a German invasion, they would go to ground and carry out a clandestine war against the occupying forces.
After the school's closure, Blairmore House was run as a private hunting lodge for several years. [4] The building is now used as a prayer and intercession training school and retreat centre run by an evangelical Christian group called Ellel Ministries. [5] [6]
Blairmore House is a Category C listed building. [7]
Huntly is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, formerly known as Milton of Strathbogie or simply Strathbogie. It had a population of 4,460 in 2004 and is the site of Huntly Castle. Its neighbouring settlements include Keith and Rothiemay. Both Huntly and the surrounding district of Gordon are named for a town and family that originated in the Border country.
Ellon is a town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, approximately 16 miles north of Aberdeen, lying on the River Ythan, which has one of the few undeveloped river estuaries on the eastern coast of Scotland. It is in the ancient region of Formartine. Its name is believed to derive from the Gaelic term Eilean, an island, on account of the presence of an island in the River Ythan, which offered a convenient fording point. In 1707 it was made a burgh of barony for the Earl of Buchan.
Turriff is a town and civil parish in Aberdeenshire in Scotland. It lies on the River Deveron, about 166 feet (51 m) above sea level, and has a population of 5,708. In everyday speech it is often referred to by its Scots name Turra, which is derived from the Scottish Gaelic pronunciation.
Aberdeenshire or the County of Aberdeen is a historic county and registration county of Scotland. The area of the county, excluding the city of Aberdeen itself, is also a lieutenancy area. The county borders Kincardineshire, Angus and Perthshire to the south, Inverness-shire and Banffshire to the west, and the North Sea to the north and east. It has a coast-line of 65 miles (105 km).
Gordon is a county constituency of the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom (Westminster), which elects one member of Parliament (MP) by the first past the post system of election. The constituency first returned a member in the 1983 general election, but has undergone boundary changes since that date.
Clan Gordon is a Highland Scottish clan, historically one of the most powerful Scottish clans. The Gordon lands once spanned a large territory across the Highlands. Presently, Gordon is seated at Aboyne Castle, Aberdeenshire. The Chief of the clan is the Earl of Huntly, later the Marquess of Huntly.
Oyne is a small village in rural Aberdeenshire at the bottom of Bennachie in Scotland.
Worksop College is a British co-educational private school for both boarding and day pupils aged 13 to 18, in Worksop. It sits at the northern edge of Sherwood Forest, in Nottinghamshire, England. Founded by Nathaniel Woodard in 1890, the school is a member of the Woodard Corporation and Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference, and has a strong Anglo-Catholic tradition.
Ronald Center was a Scottish composer.
Rannoch School was an independent boarding school, located on the south shore of Loch Rannoch in Perth and Kinross, Scotland on the Dall Estate, 6 miles (9.7 km) from Kinloch Rannoch. Dall House served as the main school building and a boarding house.
Newmachar is a village in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, about 10 miles (16 km) to the north-west of Aberdeen.
The Cabrach is an estate and largely depopulated rural community in Moray, Scotland. The meaning of the name has been much disputed. Traditionally it is held to mean "timber moss", though this has no recognisable counterpart in Scottish Gaelic, and Alexander Smith (1875) suggests no Gaelic meaning can be assigned. Iain Mac an Tàilleir (2003) gives a meaning "antler place", whilst Ainmean-Àite na h-Alba, the national advisory partnership for Gaelic place-names in Scotland, suggests "the place of the trees".
Aberlour House is the junior school of Gordonstoun School, and is now fully merged with it. It educated pupils from age 6 to 13.
New Leeds is a planned village in the Buchan area of Aberdeenshire, Scotland, situated 5.1 kilometres (3.2 mi) east of Strichen at the foot of Mormond Hill.
Wellesley House School is a private day and boarding preparatory school in the coastal town of Broadstairs in the English county of Kent. Founded in 1866, it educates boys and girls aged 3 to 13.
Glass is a parish about 8 miles west of Huntly, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is now wholly located in Aberdeenshire but before the reorganisation of Scottish county boundaries in 1891 it was partly in Banffshire. The name Glass may have come from the Gaelic word for "grey," "meadow" or "stream."
Cluny Castle was originally built c.1604 as a Z-plan castle replacing either a house or small peel tower. Sited in the parish of Cluny, it is south of Monymusk and north of Sauchen in Aberdeenshire, north-east Scotland. Owned by three separate branches of Gordon families over the centuries, it was used to shelter Jacobite rebels in the mid-18th century. Extensive additions were made in 1820 to the design of architect John Smith when it was in the ownership of Colonel John Gordon. Two wings of the castle and the adjoining private chapel were destroyed by fire in 1926, but the damage was restored.
James Robertson FRSE (1803–1860) was a Scottish minister who served as Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland. He was also a noted chemist.
James Crichton of Frendraught or Frendraucht was a Scottish landowner involved in a fire on 18 October 1630. Eight guests were killed at Frendraught Castle and arson was suspected. The facts of the case were widely disputed.