Location | Banff, Aberdeenshire, Scotland |
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Website | https://www.nationalgalleries.org/visit/duff-house |
Duff House is a Georgian estate house in Banff, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Now in the care of Historic Environment Scotland, it is part of the National Galleries Scotland and is a Category A listed building. [1]
The house is built of ashlar in three storeys to a square plan (9-bay x 8-bay) on a raised basement with advanced corner towers.
The house and the associated Fife gates, walled garden, Collie lodge, mausoleum, ice house, Bridge Gates House and the Eagles Gate lodge are designated as Category A listed group of buildings.
Duff House was designed by William Adam and built between 1735 and 1740 for William Duff of Braco. [2] [3] The design and construction resulted in a legal dispute between the architect and owner which culminated in a legal case in 1743. [3] Construction began on 11 June 1735. [3] The design of the house originally intended to have flanking pavilions linked by colonnaded quadrants but these were never completed as the Earl thought the house would be too large. [3] This, along with further disagreements on the issue of mason work resulted in the legal case between the architect and Earl. [3]
David Bryce Jr was later commissioned to provide a three-storey pavilion and corridor block, but this was damaged by a bomb in 1940 and subsequently demolished. The Earls of Fife moved out of Duff House in 1903, gifting the property to Banff Burgh in 1906. [4] Between 1911 and 1913, the House functioned as a hotel and then became a sanatorium until 1923 when it became a hotel again. [4] The hotel closed in 1928 and Duff House entered a period of limited use. [4] However, during the Second World War the House became an internment camp and later a prisoner of war camp. [4] In 1940, the House was damaged during a bombing raid resulting in eight dead and serious damage to parts of the building. [4] By 1942, the House was used by the Free Norwegian forces as their Headquarters, along with use by Polish exile forces. [2]
In 1956 it passed into care by the State and a period of refurbishment began across the property. [4] In 1995, the house became part of the National Galleries of Scotland. [4] The house still sits in much of its original designed landscape, albeit with the addition of a golf course.
National Galleries Scotland has numerous works of fine art on display at Duff House, including works by El Greco, Thomas Gainsborough and Henry Raeburn. Duff House is also home to the Dunimarle Library, a collection of rare books, which can be viewed by appointment. [5]
Alexander William George Duff, 1st Duke of Fife, styled Viscount Macduff between 1857 and 1879 and known as the Earl Fife between 1879 and 1889, was a British peer who married Princess Louise, the third child and eldest daughter of King Edward VII and Queen Alexandra.
Duke of Fife is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom that has been created twice, in both cases for Alexander Duff, 1st Earl of Fife. In 1889, Lord Fife married Princess Louise, the eldest daughter of Albert Edward, Prince of Wales and a granddaughter of Queen Victoria.
Banffshire is a historic county, registration county and lieutenancy area of Scotland. The county town is Banff, although the largest settlement is Buckie to the west. It borders the Moray Firth to the north, Morayshire and Inverness-shire to the west, and Aberdeenshire to the east and south.
Earl Fife was a title in the Peerage of Ireland created by letters patent dated 26 April 1759 for William Duff, 1st Baron Braco, after asserting his descent from Macduff, the medieval Earl of Fife. Though in the Irish peerage, the title's name refers to Fife in Scotland.
Gosford House is a neoclassical country house around 2 miles (3 km) northeast of Longniddry in East Lothian, Scotland, on the A198 Aberlady Road, in 5,000 acres (2,000 ha) of parkland and coast.
James Duff, 2nd Earl Fife was a Scottish aristocrat and Member of Parliament.
James Duff, 4th Earl Fife, KT, GCH, was a Scottish nobleman who became a Spanish general.
James Duff, 5th Earl Fife, was a Scottish nobleman and politician.
Banff is a town in the Banff and Buchan area of Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is situated on Banff Bay and faces the town of Macduff across the estuary of the River Deveron. It is a former royal burgh, and is the county town of the historic county of Banffshire.
Macduff is a town in the Banff and Buchan area of Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It is situated on Banff Bay and faces the town of Banff across the estuary of the River Deveron. Macduff is a former burgh and was the last place in the United Kingdom where deep-water wooden fishing boats were built.
William Duff, 1st Earl Fife, of Braco, Banff, was a Scottish landowner and politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1727 to 1734.
Mar Lodge is a sporting lodge 5 miles to the west of Braemar and the principal building on the Mar Lodge Estate in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. It was built in 1895, replacing an earlier building, by Alexander Duff, 1st Duke of Fife.
Mar Lodge Estate is a highland estate in western Aberdeenshire, Scotland, which has been owned and managed by the National Trust for Scotland (NTS) since 1995. Its principal building, Mar Lodge, is about 4 miles (6.4 km) west of the village of Braemar. The estate is recognised as one of the most important nature conservation landscapes in the British Isles and occupies nearly 8% of the Cairngorms National Park, covering 29,340 hectares. The natural heritage value of the estate is reflected by the fact that much of it is designated as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), a Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and a Special Protection Area (SPA). The entire estate has been classified as a national nature reserve since May 2017, and is designated a Category II protected area by the International Union for Conservation of Nature.
General Sir Alexander Duff was a British Army officer of the Napoleonic era.
Forglen House is a mansion house that forms the centrepiece of the Forglen estate in the parish of Forglen, north-west of Turriff, Aberdeenshire, in the north-east of Scotland. The lands were given to the abbots of the Abbey of Arbroath by King William the Lion before 1211 and the Monymusk Reliquary was held there. The original castle, built around 1346, was replaced by a vernacular harled house that was later extended. Significant development of the estate began when it was acquired by the family of Lord Banff and they started the work of landscaping and planting trees. It became their main family seat during the 18th century. After the death of William Ogilvy, the eighth and final Lord Banff, the estate passed by marriage to the Abercromby baronets who continued to enhance the property and maintained it as their main residence. Sir Robert Abercromby, 5th Baronet commissioned the Aberdeen City Architect, John Smith to design the present house in 1839.
St Ninian's Chapel in Braemar, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, is a Grade B listed Anglican chapel located in the grounds of the Mar Lodge Estate. Built from 1895 to 1898 for use as a private chapel by the family of Alexander Duff, 1st Duke of Fife, owners of Mar Lodge, it has been the property of the Diocese of Aberdeen and Orkney in the Scottish Episcopal Church since 1899. St Ninian's Chapel is the most westerly church in the Diocese.
Duff House Royal Golf Club is a Championship Course and one of the best golf courses in Aberdeenshire. Located in Banff, Scotland it was founded in 1910 and is designed by Dr Alister MacKenzie. It was founded as the Duff House Golf Club and became the Duff House Royal Golf Club after subsequently receiving royal patronage, at the request of Princess Louise, Dowager Duchess of Fife, in 1925.
Dufftown Clock Tower is a stone tower with a clock at the crossroads in the centre of Dufftown, Banffshire, at the focal point of the town square. It became a Class B listed building in 1972.
Braco's Banking House is a three-storey town house in Elgin, Moray in Scotland. The home and business place of banker William Duff of Braco from 1703 to 1722, the house has borne his name ever since. It was designated a Category A listed building in 1970.
The Feudal Barony of MacDuff is a Scottish Feudal Barony in Macduff, Scotland, contained mostly within the boundaries of the Town of Macduff, in the Banff and Buchan area of Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Clan MacDuff traces origins to the historic, Lowland, Scottish Duff Clan. William Shakespeare's MacBeth has always played a role in the legend of Clan MacDuff, as few can determine the line between The Duff Family history and historical fiction. This ambiguity worked to the benefit of future MacDuff Barons, who were able to prove they were descended from the first Duff to receive a charter in Northeast Scotland. In 1404 David Duff received the charter, in Aberdeenshire, from Robert III of Scotland. In 1759, William Duff was granted the historic Celtic Title of “Fife”, further tying the Duffs of Northeast Scotland, with their ancient Lowland ancestors - the original Earls of Fife from the 11th century. William Duff had five sons - the eldest, James, would become the 2nd Earl Fife and the 1st Baron of MacDuff. James invested heavily in the village of Doune, or “Down”, across the River Deveron from Banff. He built a harbor there in 1760, which quickly became more successful than the harbor at neighboring Banff, which had been established much earlier. In 1783 a charter was granted by King George III, changing the name from Doune to Macduff in his favor and, although a lesser title than Earl, bestowing on him the dignity of the 1st Baron of Macduff.