Balnagask is an area of

Torry Torry is a suburb of Aberdeen, Scotland, lying on the south bank of the River Dee, Aberdeenshire, River Dee. It was historically part of the county of Kincardineshire and was absorbed into the city of Aberdeen in 1891. Origin People have been ...

, a

burgh A burgh ( ) is an Autonomy, autonomous municipal corporation in Scotland, usually a city, town, or toun in Scots language, Scots. This type of administrative division existed from the 12th century, when David I of Scotland, King David I created ...

Aberdeen Aberdeen ( ; ; ) is a port city in North East Scotland, and is the List of towns and cities in Scotland by population, third most populous Cities of Scotland, Scottish city. Historically, Aberdeen was within the historic county of Aberdeensh ...

in Scotland. Balnagask is said to mean "the village in the hollow" in

Gaelic Gaelic (pronounced for Irish Gaelic and for Scots Gaelic) is an adjective that means "pertaining to the Gaels". It may refer to: Languages * Gaelic languages or Goidelic languages, a linguistic group that is one of the two branches of the Insul ...

. The Balnagask Estate stretched from the golf course to the fields that overlooked both the Bay of Nigg and the

railway Rail transport (also known as train transport) is a means of transport using wheeled vehicles running in railway track, tracks, which usually consist of two parallel steel railway track, rails. Rail transport is one of the two primary means of ...

line. Two farms straddled the land – Kirkhill Farm was situated on the left side of the hill and Home Farm located on land now occupied by Baxter Court. The estate also included an area of land around Balnagask Road and the top of Baxter Street. In the 1960s

Aberdeen City Council Aberdeen City Council is the Local government in Scotland, local authority for Aberdeen City, one of the 32 council areas of Scotland. In its modern form it was created in 1996. Aberdeen was formerly governed by a municipal corporation, corporat ...

gave the go ahead for a large housing estate to be built at Balnagask. The new estate began to swallow up acres of land on the southern slopes of Torry Hill as the new cuboid shaped houses enveloped the elegant villas of Balnagask. The box shaped homes (affectionately referred to by residents as ‘The Hen Hooses’) differed wildly from the regimented ideas of past town planners. The first phase of the housing scheme was completed in 1967 and the second phase in 1969. In August 2024, Aberdeen City Council announced that a home rebuilding programme would take place in the area after it found that 366 council properties and 138 private properties contained Reinforced Autoclaved Aerated Concrete.

References

External links

The Balnagask Headland and the Bay of Nigg

A walk around Torry

Torry, Aberdeen
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