Thomas Gillies (d. 1808) was a surgeon who served in the Bengal Army where he acquired a large fortune. After he returned to Scotland, he purchased the estate of Balmakewan and some adjacent lands. He was described as a ‘benevolent man but rather eccentric’. He had many brothers, including John Gillies (1747-1836), an ancient historian and classical scholar, and Adam Gillies (1760-1842) a judge. Dr Gillies had a son, Robert Pearse Gillies (1789-1858) a man of letters and author of the Memoirs of a Literary Veteran (3 vols., 1851), who sold the estate in the early-nineteenth century.

The Adam office made designs for a house called Balmakewan House to the south of Aberdeen in 1789. The designs include a two-storey, three-bay building over a basement, with a hipped roof and an adjoining stable block. This comprised a central range with flanking wings and a central bowed room to the rear, though there are some variations between drawings. These designs were not executed, though another house was built (the architect is not known) at the end of the eighteenth century when maps begin showing a house in the same location under the names ‘Bomakune’ and later ‘Balmaqueen’. This date would align with two late-eighteenth century dovecots on the estate.

Literature:
W. Roy, General map of the east part of Strathmore…, 1793; W. Johnson, Map of Kincardineshire, 1822; D. Peter, The Baronage of Angus and Mearns, 1856, pp. 132-133; A.T. Bolton, The Architecture of Robert and James Adam, Volume II, Index, 1922, pp. 3, 72; D. King, The Complete Works of Robert & James Adam and Unbuilt Adam, Volume 2, 2001, pp. 121; F. Watt & D. Finkelstein, ‘Robert Pearse Gillies, 1789-1858’ in Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online, [accessed 9 January 2023];

Louisa Catt, 2023