Monarch of the Glen’s farm is making a move

IT won’t require a removal van, but an entire farm on the estate featured in the TV series Monarch of the Glen is being moved to make way for a dual carriageway.

The working farm on the Balavil Estate owned by singer Fiona Kennedy’s daughter Hannah and her Dutch husband Eric Hereema will be shunted 100 yards across the busy A9 near Kingussie, Inverness-shire.

Instead of taking the old Balavil Home Farm buildings apart and then rebuilding them, the Hereemas plan to demolish them and build replacements on the neighbouring land.

Yesterday the Cairngorms National Park Authority granted permission to the couple, who bought Balavil House and its 7,500-acre estate for an undisclosed sum in 2015.

Planning committee convener Eleanor Mackintosh said: ‘It certainly is an unusual application, moving an entire farm, but I am happy to support the recommendation based on the context of the application.’

Head of planning and communities Gavin Miles said: ‘The A9 dualling project has presented the farm owners with a set of challenges as to how it can go about its daily business postconstruction and they have decided that the best way forward is to essentially move the farm from east to west.

‘We are recommending approval of the application as it meets all the relevant policies in the Cairngorms National Park Local Development Plan, despite an objection from Transport Scotland.

‘But this is a permission in principle, with the detail of the scheme yet to be decided.’