I happened to be in Elgin the other day and I had a look to see what Valuation Rolls they have. In fact the only relevant one there is the 1877-1878 one. There are VRs for 1906-1907 and some later years. There should be a full set in Edinburgh and possibly in Aberdeen and/or Banff.
All the properties at Balnamoon and Balnamoon Hill were part of the estate of Braco, and the proprietor of them all was the Right Honourable Viscount Macduff. This was the then title of Alexander William George Duff, later the first Duke of Fife.
There were three farms, and William Mitchell was tenant of the largest farm, which had an annual value of £100/-/-. John Raffan was tenant of another, annual value £32/-/- and Ann Taylor of a third, annual value £7/10/-.
There were several crofts at Balnamoon, with annual values ranging from £11/19/- to £32/-/-. John Lorimer was tenant (not owner) of a croft with annual value £14/-/-. On Balnamoon Hill there were more crofts, with annual values between £1/1/- and £4/10/-, and there were 25 further tenants with annual values of less than £1/-/-, though these could have been anywhere on the Braco estate, not necessarily on Balnamoon.
Comparing the names of the tenants in 1877-1878 with the householders in the census in 1881, all those who had 19-year leases in 1877-1878 were still there in 1881 except John Lorimer, who died in 1877 and had presumably been succeeded by his son William.
The sizes of the farms and crofts ranged from the 100-acre farm tenanted by William Mitchell, 66-acre farm tenanted by John Raffan and 60-acre croft tenanted by John Reid down to just 4 acres tenanted by James Shand, and presumably even smaller properties not listed individually in the valuation roll. William Lorimer's 20 acres was a sizeable croft, but small for a farm.
(Digression. John Raffan's 66 acres of which 42 were arable was listed in the VR as a farm, and John Reid's 60 acres of which 45 were arable was listed as a croft, both with the same annual value of £32/-/-; and there were several crofts with acreages and annual values greater than Ann Taylor's 17-acre farm. This makes me wonder anew just what the distinction between a farm and a croft was.)
The two larger farms and the crofts at Balnamoon were on 19-year leases, while Ann Taylor's farm and the crofts on Balnamoon Hill were on annual leases.
Hope this helps.
