Undiscovered Scotland

 

The land rising on the north side of the Spey valley was open and bleak in the 1700s, marked only by the Ballintomb Burn flowing towards the Spey with the Moor of Ballintomb to its east.

In 1760 Sir Archibald Grant of Monymusk laid out a weaving village on the open hillside here. This comprised a single main street running east-west with side roads running off it. The focus of the village was The Square, lying at the point where the main through road met the road leading up from Carron in the Spey Valley.

And remarkably little appears to have changed since. Much of the surrounding land has now been afforested, but Archiestown itself would be easily recognised by the man who founded it, nearly 250 years ago. The main road running through the village, now the B9012, is still lined by stone cottages and houses, only a few of which have been extended or modernised.

In 1783 a serious fire swept through much of the village. A visitor in 1798 noted that the state of the roads was such that the village was only accessible by carriage from the east, and that many of the houses were still just blackened and roofless shells. Rebuilding took place in the early 1800s.

The central square would probably have been much more open in feel in 1760. The trees that have grown in the years since add greatly to the character of the square, giving it a very unusual, rural feel: old photographs show the trees much smaller, and the built-up nature of The Square much more obvious. It is now a Conservation Area and home to the 18ft high war memorial, added in 1920.

On the south-east side of The Square is the Archiestown Hotel which dates back to 1900 and comes complete with a walled garden. Archiestown is also home to a Post Office, and to Archie's Den, a tea room, shop and B&B.