The stately homes that have left an indelible mark on Scotland

The Stately Homes of England,

How beautiful they stand,

To prove the upper classes

Have still the upper hand

Very few people nowadays realise that Coward was appropriating a poem first published in Scotland more than a century earlier. On page 392 of Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine for April 1827 you can see the the original by Felicia Hemans (1793-1835):

The Stately Homes of England,

How beautiful they stand!

Amidst their tall ancestral trees,

O’er all the pleasant land!

It was the first time that the phrase “stately homes” had appeared in print, and Hemans’s description struck a chord and has stayed with us to the present day.

I have now reached the seventh in a 12-part series about Scotland’s built heritage, and today I will be writing about stately homes across Scotland. In future parts I will be writing about castles and I will conclude by naming my top ten castles in the final three parts of the series.

Confusingly, some Scottish stately homes are called castles, but I side with the late great historical fiction writer Nigel Tranter, an expert on the subject of castles which he defined in his factual masterwork The Fortified House In Scotland as “fortalices, lesser castles, peel towers, keeps and defensible lairds’ houses.” In other words, castles were originally fortifications whereas stately homes are large houses built as homes, not castles, even if people call them castles – I told you it was confusing.

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Tranter took eight years and five volumes to create that work, an update of his original, The Fortalices And Early Mansions Of Southern Scotland, which was published when he was just 25 and kick-started a lengthy writing career that lasted until his death in 2000 at the age of 90 – he wrote more than 120 books in total.

Nigel, who I met several times, was one of a small group of authors who inspired me to start writing about history and I have been guided by his expertise on our built heritage, with many of the castles and houses that he featured in his books now landmarks across Scotland.

As I wrote in part one, we are truly fortunate to live in a beautiful country and though stately homes, almost by definition, were built by rich and sometimes avaricious people, I would contend that they have added much to Scottish history and culture and adorn our built heritage.

As before, in writing about these homes I will make my own choice of the best and most important. Again, I don’t expect every reader to agree with my choices today, but they all have a story to tell, and all have made their contribution to our history. Apologies in advance if I have left out your favourite, but email me at nationalhamish@gmail.com and I’ll choose the best examples.

After my latest column on statues, reader Kenny Burnett emailed me to say: “Loved your item in today’s National but how could you omit the most obnoxious one of all, the Duke of Sutherland lording over Golspie. This horror should be cleared from the landscape like he did the Highland people. Keep up the good work, I really appreciate it as like most Scots our history was kept from me.”

I omitted “The Manny” (above), as the statue is also known, on grounds of taste. I would not want it demolished, but as Kenny suggests, not enough Scots know our history because we were not taught it at school.

I have been fortunate to learn much about Scottish history and have travelled all over Scotland – to my shame I have yet to make it to Orkney and Shetland but will do so soon – visiting many historic sites, especially castles and stately homes. Here’s my top eight of those homes.

In my opinion the grandest of them all is Hopetoun House, to the west of Edinburgh. I am going to write a future series on great non-royal individuals and their families in the history of Scotland. I will write about several members of the Hope family then, but suffice to say Hopetoun House has very much been associated with the Hopes for more than 300 years.

It is currently home to Adrian Hope, the 4th Marquess of Linlithgow, and his son Andrew, Lord Hopetoun, though the house and its extensive grounds are owned by a preservation trust.

Begun in 1699, Hopetoun House was created over many decades by Scotland’s greatest architects, Sir William Bruce and William Adam, whose sons John and Robert completed the interiors, including the entrance hall. The house is surrounded by a designed landscape, and the estate of nearly 6000 acres contains deer parks and numerous buildings which are historic and listed in their own right. The gardens are simply magnificent and the collection of art within the house contains works from several centuries.

Its chief importance for Scotland and our landscape is the fact that Hopetoun House became the inspiration for generations of rich and aristocratic families who wanted the status symbol of a huge home and estate. The creations of Bruce and the Adam family were much copied after Hopetoun and its influence on our built heritage is incalculable.

Just along the southern banks of the Firth of Forth, to the west of South Queensferry, is Dalmeny House, home to the 7th Earl and Countess of Rosebery. Though not on the scale of Hopetoun, Dalmeny House is the earliest example of a Gothic Revival building in Scotland, being completed in 1817 to the plan of William Wilkins (1778-1831) who also designed the National Gallery in London.

The interior contains an eclectic mix of artworks, furniture and porcelain, and it was in one of these rooms that the-then Earl of Rosebery and his wife formed a committee that initiated the first Edinburgh Festival in 1947, partly paid for with funds provided by Lady Rosebery from the winnings of her husband’s Derby victor, Ocean Swell.

Again, Dalmeny is important because of the influence it had on other families that wanted their own stately home.

One of the most important buildings in the Scottish Borders is Traquair House, the oldest continually inhabited house in Scotland. Though relatively austere in appearance, it has a remarkable story, dating back to mediaeval times when it was a hunting lodge for the monarchs of Scotland.

It came into the possession of the Earl of Buchan, who in 1491 gave it to his illegitimate son, James Stewart, who became the 1st Laird of Traquair and who died on Flodden Field in 1513. The document granting the barony of Traquair to the 1st Laird survives to this day.

The bulk of the house dates from the 16th and 17th centuries and with the Traquair family being close to the monarchy, it was visited by Mary, Queen of Scots, and her son James VI&I – the 4th Laird, John Stewart, being captain of their bodyguard. Some items belonging to Mary can be seen at Traquair.

The 7th Laird was made the 1st Earl of Traquair and Lord High Treasurer of Scotland by King Charles I, for whom he fought during the wars of the Three Kingdoms.

Both Catholic and Jacobite, Traquair House managed to survive intact the persecution after the Jacobite Rising, though it cost the 11th Laird, Charles Stuart, very dear as he was imprisoned in the Tower of London. Before that, however, he created one of the legends of Traquair, closing the Bear Gates after the visit of his namesake Bonnie Prince Charlie in 1745 with the instruction – still in force – that they should not be opened until a Stuart monarch sat on the throne again.

The earldom died out in 1861 but the Lairdship of Traquair continues and recent generations have made the house an unmissable destination for tourists to the Borders. Traquair’s delightful maze and the house’s own Brewery – its deliciously strong Jacobite Ale is particularly good – are under the careful care of the 21st Laird, the Lady of Traquair, Catherine Maxwell Stuart.

Also in the Scottish Borders is Abbotsford, the country house created by Sir Walter Scott near Melrose. Its importance is not just as the home of many of Scott’s large collection of items associated with Scottish history but also because after its completion in 1824, it had a huge influence on the architectural style known as Scots Baronial.

Most of the Scottish stately homes built in the 19th century – usually paid for by the proceeds of the British Empire’s trade – were in the Scots Baronial style and often influenced by Abbotsford. They can be found all over Scotland and many are landmarks in their own right.

However, one certainly not influenced by Abbotsford was Mount Stuart House (above), ancestral home of the Stuarts of Bute. Its stunning location on the east side of the Isle of Bute had seen the original main house burnt down in 1877, allowing the fantastically rich John Patrick Crichton-Stuart, the 3rd Marquess (1847-1900), to realise his dream of a magnificent stately home in the Gothic Revival style, he having already financed William Burges’ Gothic masterpieces, Cardiff Castle and Cardiff’s Castell Coch.

The two wings of the previous house survived but in the design of Sir Robert Rowand Anderson (1834-1921), architect of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery and the McEwan Hall in Edinburgh, the 3rd Marquess gained what might well be the most remarkable family home in Scotland.

Apart from the superb sandstone façade, Mount Stuart has its own Marble Hall replete with stained glass windows, and a Marble Chapel that is testament to the 3rd Marquess’s conversion to Catholicism, which caused a huge scandal in Victorian Britain. All around the house can be seen architectural references to the many interests and extensive travels of the 3rd Marquess.

The Bute Collection of art and furniture plus an extensive library are also part of Mount Stuart, and it was in the library that a little bit of history was made in 2016 when a very rare First Folio of the plays of William Shakespeare was discovered.

For almost two centuries Dumfries House (above) near Cumnock in Ayrshire was in the ownership of the Stuarts of Bute until the current marquess (formerly the racing driver, Johnny Dumfries) sold it in 2007 to a consortium headed by the Prince of Wales – now King Charles – with the Prince’s Foundation taking over the running of the house. It was designed in the Palladian style by John and Robert Adam, and its interior includes unique furniture by Thomas Chippendale, while the estate features the Queen Elizabeth Walled Gardens – no stately home is complete without a walled garden, in my opinion.

At the other end of the country in Aberdeenshire lies Haddo House, a historic stately home also in the Palladian style and designed by William Adam, father of John and Robert. For centuries the seat of the Gordon clan chiefs, Haddo is now in the ownership of the National Trust for Scotland which says on its website: “The house underwent an opulent remodelling in the 1880s. As a result, it has the clean elegance and swooping lines of the Georgian style with a luxurious Victorian interior.”

There had been speculation that one of Haddo’s paintings, a Madonna, had been the work of Raphael, one of the greatest artists of the Italian Renaissance. It is now thought unlikely to be by Raphael but is still a thing of beauty.

I could have named 30 or more stately homes I have visited, and perhaps I will return to the subject.