Lennoxlove House
Lennoxlove House is a 14th century
historic house set in woodlands 1.5 kilometres south of
Haddington in
East Lothian,
Scotland.
Constructed originally as a rectangular
keep, the house was first known as
Lethington. It was the home of the Maitland family, which included prominent members such as the poet
Richard Maitland and his son
William Maitland,
Secretary of State to
Mary Queen of Scots. The house remained in the Maitland family until after the death of
John Maitland, the 1st
Duke of Lauderdale, in 1682.
The house was purchased by the trustees of
Frances Teresa Stewart, Duchess of Richmond and Lennox in 1702 for her nephew, Alexander Stewart,
Lord Blantyre. The Duchess had stipulated that the house be called "Lennox's Love to Blantyre", and the house later became known as Lennoxlove. It remained in the ownership of the Blantyre-Stewarts for almost two centuries. When the 12th Lord Blantyre died in 1900 without male
heirs, the property passed into the ownership of his daughter, Ellen Stewart, and her husband Sir David Baird of Newbyth. Their son, Major William Baird, commissioned the renowned
architect, Sir
Robert Lorimer to oversee extensive refurbishment of the house in 1912. Lennoxlove is now the seat of the
Dukes of Hamilton, having been purchased by the 14th Duke in 1946.
Lennoxlove is home to one of Scotland's most important collections of
portraits, including works by
van Dyck,
Canaletto,
Raeburn, and others. It also houses important pieces of
furniture,
porcelain and other fine artefacts, many of which came from the now demolished
Hamilton Palace in south
Lanarkshire. The collections include the
Boulle cabinet given to the Duchess by King
Charles II and a silver jewellery box that belonged to Mary Queen of Scots with the forged letter purporting to show her complicity in the murder of
Lord Darnley, together with her
death mask. There is also the
map and
compass carried by
Rudolf Hess,
Adolf Hitler's deputy, who flew to Scotland in 1941 on a mission to involve the
14th Duke of Hamilton in helping negotiate peace between
Britain and
Germany.
Lennoxlove is situated in a wooded estate. It is open for guided tours from Easter Weekend until the end of October. The estate had a pleasant "Garden Cafe" restaurant, unfortunately now closed according to the
Official website, but it still accommodates corporate events and weddings.
*
Official website*
Lennoxlove on the Gazeteer for Scotland*
Gallery of artefacts from the Lennoxlove Collection
