House of art & history

Charles Douglas visits Duff House, one of north east Scotland's greatest treasures.

Duff House, surely one of the most strikingly elegant examples of the Scottish architect William Adam's iconic creations, has experienced a chequered career. Situated on the River Deveron, which rises in the Cabrach Mountains, it stands close to the royal burgh of Banff. Having during the past century functioned as a palm court hotel, sanatorium and prisoner-of-war camp, it was opened, after extensive renovation, as a visitor attraction and art gallery 12 years ago.

But there were problems from the very start of its existence. William Duff, for whom it was built, was the Member of Parliament for Banffshire from 1727 until 1734, after which he was created first Lord Braco of Kilbride in 1735, then Viscount Duff and 1st Earl of Fife.

To assert the pre-eminence to which his great wealth undoubtedly entitled him, in 1735 he commissioned William Adam to create him a palace.

Ancient tradition has it that the noble House of MacDuff had the hereditary privilege of crowning the Kings of Scots, and that, in the 11th century, it was MacDuff, Earl of Fife, who opposed Macbeth and met an untimely end as a result. This old earldom became extinct in the 14th century, but was revived for William Duff in the Irish peerage of Great Britain in 1759. Duff, an ambitious man, was therefore aware of the importance of the dynasty he represented.

And he had been particularly fortunate in that his father had not only left him estates at Dipple, Pluscardine, Aberlour, Keith, Grange and Mortlach, th...

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• By : Charles Douglas
• In : News
• Issue : 41
• Page : 15
• Words : 1,038