Auchlyne - History

History

The mansion house, built by the Third Earl of Breadalbane, from whom it could be rented, dates from 1760. In the fields below Auchlyne Farm are the ruins of a chapel, which is also marked as a burial ground on Ordnance Survey maps. There is also a burial ground site on a mound below Suie. There are numerous disused and ruined croft buildings in the hills and moors around Auchlyne.

Of the three houses in Auchlyne, one, the Old Keepers cottage, has been extensively extended and remodelled since its current owner, the owner of Auchlyne Estate, moved in over 30 years ago. The Old Keepers cottage can be seen in its original guise in one of the St Andrews University Archive pictures. The remaining two houses are modern bungalows, one of which is home to current keeper.

The estate caught the eye of John Davy, brother of and assistant to Sir Humphry Davy, the renowned physicist. The National Archives retain a letter from John Davy in 1824 in which he expressed his interest in the estate.

Papers in the National Archives suggest that Auchlyne was one of over thirty properties either owned or leased by the Grenville family, Dukes of Buckingham, who evidently commissioned a household inventory and valuation in 1847, which is retained by the National Archives of Scotland. There is also reference to Auchlyne in an item in a catalogue of 1848, which details the receipt by the Dukes of Buckingham and Chandos, under the title "Marquis of Chandos", of a powder-flask and shot-belt from some "obliged friends" in August 1837, no doubt after a days grouse shooting on or after the Glorious Twelfth. These dates suggest that the 1847 inventory and valuation was in preparation for the 1848 sale. The sale was necessary due to the combined extravagances and follies of the first and second Dukes.

Auchlyne House was rented in 1858 by "The Black Prince", as the Perthshire locals called Maharajah Duleep Singh, the first Indian prince to visit Scotland. His father was Ranjit Singh, the legendary Lion of the Punjab, who ruled the Sikh kingdom in India. He took Auchlyne from Lord Breadalbane when his lease of Castle Menzies expired, but in 1860 moved to England.

The mansion house on the Breadalbane Estate was rented by Mr John M. Crabbie, of Crabbie's Green Ginger fame, in 1888. It was rented later, in 1893, by John Crabbie's son, a Captain Crabbe. The discrepancy in the surnames arose because Captain Crabbe had to change his name after being blackballed from the New Club in Edinburgh because his family were in trade. The Crabbe family bought the property and have lived there since.

Breadalbane, the region in which Auchlyne is located, was home to the Campbells of Breadalbane.