Haddo House

A historical perspective, drawn from the Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland: A Survey of Scottish Topography, Statistical, Biographical and Historical, edited by Francis H. Groome and originally published in parts by Thomas C. Jack, Grange Publishing Works, Edinburgh between 1882 and 1885.

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Haddo House, the seat of the Earl of Aberdeen, in Methlick parish, Aberdeenshire, 2 miles SSE of Methlick village, 6½ WNW of Ellon, and 7 NE of Old Meldrum. A Palladian edifice by Baxter of Edinburgh (temp. George II.), it suffered considerable damage from a fire of August 1881, having just undergone such improvements as re-roofing, the redecoration of its drawing room, etc. The pictures include a number of portraits by Lawrence; but the gem of the collection is Delaroche's portrait of Guizot as a young man, presented by Guizot himself to that fourth Earl (1784-1860), who, as a statesman, distinguished himself by his non-intervention policy. The park and policies, more than 1000 acres in extent, are beautifully wooded with Scotch firs of great age, spruce and hardwood trees, fine limes, and foreign pines, being further adorned by two triangular artificial lakes, each measuring 22/3 furlongs by 1. A former `Hous of Haddoche' or 'Place of Kellie'- 'whairon thair was no roofe, but the wallis stronglie built, standing on volt,-was forced to capitulate to 6000 Covenanters under the Marquis of Argyll, after a three days' siege (8 May 1644), when Sir John Gordon of Haddo, first Bart-, was taken to Edinburgh and beheaded. This affair is known as the `Raid of Kellie-' John-Campbell Hamilton-Gordon, seventh Earl of Aberdeen and Baron Haddo since 1682 (b. 1847; suc. 1870), is thirteenth in descent from Patrick Gordon, who was slain at the battle of Arbroath)14 46), and claims to represent the male line of the Gordons, wbereas the other noble families of the name succeeded by female right. (See Gordon Castle.) He holds in Aberdeenshire 63, 422 acres, valued at £40, 766 per annum.—Ord. Sur., sh. 87, 1876.

An accompanying 19th C. Ordnance Survey map is available, or use the map tab to the right of this page.

Note: This text has been made available using a process of scanning and optical character recognition. Despite manual checking, some typographical errors may remain. Please remember this description dates from the 1880s; names may have changed, administrative divisions will certainly be different and there are known to be occasional errors of fact in the original text, which we have not corrected because we wish to maintain its integrity. This information is provided subject to our standard disclaimer

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