The hall

Leith Hall began in 1650 as a traditional Scottish tower house. Over the next four centuries, the house evolved and expanded, with successive lairds adding their own stamp to create the unique building you can see today. 

Leith Hall belonged to the same family for almost all its existence; nine generations of the Leith/Leith-Hay family have lived here. It was built by James Leith, who earned his money from the tenanted farms on the estate.

With the Civil War raging in Scotland, the mid-17th century was a time of poverty for many families because of the levels of taxation required to finance the battles. This was not the time for a great ’prestige’ building such as at Fyvie, Crathes and Craigievar – those castles were constructed 50 years before, during the more peaceful times of James IV. The north wing of Leith Hall is the earliest surviving space, plain and modest in design.

James Leith was succeeded by his son John at the end of the 17th century. John married Janet Ogilvie, and they had three sons and two daughters. There followed some difficult years, as serious famine threatened after disastrous harvests in 1695, 1696, 1698 and 1699. 

The third laird, also John, only held the title for nine years before he died in 1736 at the age of 38. He had married Mary Hay of Rannes in 1730 and he left her with a 5-year-old son (John) and a daughter (Janet). The Hay family were committed Jacobites. Mary’s father Charles had been a leading figure in the 1715 Rising and her brother, Andrew, was a close friend and confident of Charles Edward Stuart (Bonnie Prince Charlie) during the ’45. Andrew was well known for being very tall – 7ft, 2 in. He fought at Prestonpans and Falkirk, and was the first Jacobite to enter Manchester, as the Prince pushed south towards London to reclaim the throne for the House of Stuart. 

After the Battle of Culloden, Bonnie Prince Charlie fled into hiding on the west coast. Andrew, who had fought alongside him, joined him after hiding for a short spell at Leith Hall, since the Leith family was sympathetic to the Stuart cause. However, Andrew was concerned he would incriminate the family, in particular his sister’s children (upon whom he doted). He eventually fled into exile in 1752, in order to protect the Rannes estate – it would have been under threat of confiscation if it was known he was still in Scotland.

Meanwhile, Andrew’s nephew John Leith III had come of age and was laird of Leith Hall in his own right. He had been too young at 14 to fight with the Jacobites in the ’45. In 1756 he married Harriot Steuart of Auchlunchart and he started to make the first improvements to the house since the original construction by his great-grandfather. The east wing was raised by two storeys to increase the living quarters, and the stables were relocated to a new curved building, which forms part of today’s boundary to the walled garden. Small two-storey pavilions were added at each corner.

But tragedy struck the young laird in 1763. Three days before Christmas, he was lunching at a tavern in Aberdeen when he became involved in an argument with a neighbour of Leith Hall, who accused the estate of selling sub-standard grain. John was found outside in the street with a gunshot wound to the head. He died back at Leith Hall on Christmas Day. He was only 32 and he left Harriot with three sons: John IV, Alexander (Sandie) and James.

To help Alexander (who had inherited from his elder brother), in 1789 Andrew sold the Hay family estate of Rannes, purchased the Leith Hall estate and then handed it back to Alexander free of debt. There was only one condition: the Leith family name was to change to Leith-Hay.

Subsequent generations throughout the 19th century pursued military careers around the world, including Crimea, Canada and India.

Read more about the Leith-Hays and their colonial positions

In 1939, at the age of 81, the ninth laird of Leith Hall died, and the lairdship passed to his son Charles Arthur. However, just four months after leading his father’s funeral procession, he was killed in a motorcycle accident. His mother Henrietta remained at Leith Hall during the Second World War and took on more farm tenants during those years. The house also continued its military connection, with part of the property being used as a base for the Royal Army Service Corps (RASC) with an Auxiliary Territorial Service (ATS) attachment. 

In 1945 Henrietta donated the house to the National Trust for Scotland, in return for an apartment within for the rest of her life. Leith Hall opened to the public in May 1953.