Drummuir Estate history by Priscilla Gordon-Duff July 2003.

Drummuir Estate lies at the heart of Botriphnie parish which in turn lies in the heart of Banffshire. Banffshire itself was once described as a 'Duff ridden county', now only a memory is kept a live by stately Duff House whilst the Lord Lieutenancy and postal address aree two of the very few reminders that Banffshire ever existed.

In 1621 Adam Duff, fourth laird of Torriesoul (Huntly) and son of a burgess from Aberdeen bought land at Drummuir from Robert Innes of Invermarkie and Balvenie.

This Strathisla property, once in the hands of the Abbey of Kinloss, as was a much of the agricultural land of Scotland in the 16th century, came into secular ownership through the needs of the Crown and subsequently of the pre Reformation Church to raise funds through the creation of feus.

The original centre of the Duff lands in Strathisla is where the Mains of Drummuir stands today. Built in 1671 by Adam Duff, grandson of the original Adam, the crow step gabling and undercroft are the surviving features of an early laird's house built with defence in mind. Indeed in The Chronicles of Keith it is referred to as 'the old castle of Drummuir'. Sadly for us many of its 17th century features were removed or obliterated in the early 20th century by an 'improving' laird, Thomas Gordon-Duff. One day the fireplace with the inscription ' Adam and Anne Abercromby biggit this house and think no sheam' may be uncovered. The gravestone bearing their initials AD:AA 1671 is in Botriphnie graveyard (or there was in the early 20th century. I must go and look for it, writer's note.)

This Adam Duff was grandson of the original Adam, his father Robert the Gallant having been killed at the Battle of Alford in 1645 fighting for Lord Montrose's Cavalier army. That much is fact. The next piece may not be, but it makes a good story.

In 1682 the second Adam died leaving a daughter Katharine, whose coat of arms is in Botriphnie Kirk. She was quite young, 14 or 15, and on his death bed her father allegedly instructed her to 'marry anyone she liked so long as he had plenty of cash and was called Duff'. Katharine duly obliged by marrying Alexander Duff (no apparent close relation), the son of the Provost of Inverness. Alexander was MP for Inverness from 1702 and then sat in the first Union Parliament.

Alexander did indeed bring cash - in 1700 he gained sasine on Davidston House and it was here in 1777 that Archibald Duff, who built the present day Castle was born.

However to return to Katharine, a doughty woman, who at her town house in Inverness entertained both Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Duke of Cumberland (although not at the same time!) and whose Mill, Mill of Towie may have supplied oats for the Royalist troops stationed at Huntly. (The request was certainly made in 1746.) Katharine took an active part in managing the estate - her husband was away a great deal whilst she outlived him by 32 years and also her son Robert who died in 1735.

Archibald the next laird was 15 when his father died and the Mains of Drummuir was in disrepair and so he built the Kirkton House. At this time, as plans in the Estate Archive show, there was quite a settlement at the Kirktown of Botriphnie and although Archibald referred to the house as his 'little cabin in Botriphnie' it was and still is a substantial house compared to the other buildings, all of which, except for the Kirk have long since disappeared. Archibald, a barrister, never married and died in Bristol in 1788.

John, eldest son of Alexander Duff of Davidston, his first cousin, became laird in 1788. He was 6 years old and after an education at Maryculter Academy he studied at Edinburgh University and eventually settled in Paris, where he is buried. He very occasionally visited Drummuir, much of the display china in the Castle was collected by him whilst there are receipts for his purchase of furniture for the Kirkton House. But he did not like the cold (who can blame him!?), he was frightened away by a fall of snow so his brother Archibald reported

Brother Archibald, one of Nelson's 'captains', who served on the flag ship, Foudroyant, entered the navy and as a second son he would have had few expectations of an inheritance. However whilst his brother was away he seems to have managed the Estate, which by this time (1800s) had grown to include the Estate of Westerton, formerly Anderson property and Bomakelloch and more. In 1828 he was awarded a silver plate by the Highland Agricultural Society for 'the largest extent of draining in one year by a tenant farmer', he was honoured in N for his invention of a new type of tube gunsight and at Hopeman, a Drummuir property at that time he built the new form of concave harbour that is still in existence today.

In 1836, Archibald did indeed inherit. By this time he was 59. He and his wife, whose portraits hang in the Castle as does a very fine portrait of John Duff by Angelica Kauffman, had no children but in 1846, in his 70s' he decided to build Drummuir Castle. It took 2 years to build, cost in the region of £10,000 and within 50 years was being described as 'a pretentious house, far too big for the estate which is steadily diminishing in value...It will be, I fear, a serious problem for my son some day, what to do with it.' Written in a letter in 1908 by the laird, Thomas Gordon-Duff it is sad to think that it was his son never had to deal with the problem, being killed in the first months of the Second World War. It was his grandson, Thomas Robert Gordon-Duff who inherited in 1923 at the age of 12 for whom the problem was posed.

There are a number of people alive who remember the Castle pre 1949, when Thomas Robert came to live there having been a Prisoner of War in Germany for 6 years. One such is Elspeth Illingworth, whose father Mr. Bailey took the Castle for a number of years in the 1930s for shooting party holidays. She remembers alighting from the London train at Drummuir station and being driven up to the Castle. There are some soldiers who may remember being billeted in the Castle during the Second World War, the doctor's wife who followed her husband staying at the Station Master's House and allowed to the Castle once a week for a bath.

But to return to the lairds....On Archibald's death the property passed to the son of a cousin, so in 1858 Lachlan Duff Gordon and his family came from Bermuda to live in the cold and draughty Castle. His wife added the laundry wing, whilst the family added another 'Duff' to the name. Duffs had married Gordons of Park (Park House, beside Cornhill, Banffshire) before, hence the Duff Gordon, but now both properties were conjoined and so Lachland Duff Gordon Duff it was. Thomas the next laird handed on the name Gordon-Duff to his many children, but his property to his eldest grandson.

Perhaps influenced by his grandfather, Thomas Robert was both proud of and challenged by Drummuir Castle. So, in the early 1950s' he and his wife Jean altered the Castle by flooring across the impressive Lantern Tower and living almost entirely on the first floor. It was here that the next Laird, Lachlan Alexander was brought up, attended Botriphnie Primary School and after studying at Durham University and
Aberdeen Agricultural College returned to Drummuir to live in 1978. He and his family continue to live in Drummuir, his children attending Botriphnie Primary School, baptised in Botriphnie Kirk and living first in the Kirkton House, secondly in Drummuir Castle whilst it was restored to its former glory and back again to the Kirkton House.

What happens next remains to be seen.