Regency Estates: Duff House

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Built in the Georgian era, c. 1735-1740, in Banff, Aberdeenshire, Scotland, Duff House was designed by famed architect William Adam. There ended up being a hot legal dispute between Adam and William Duff, the owner, that ended up in court in 1740.

Duff House Banffshire THE SEAT OF THE EARL OF FIFE DUFF HOUSE the principal seat of James Duff Earl of Fife is most delight fully situated on the banks of the river Deveron in the immediate vicinity of the town of Banff It is a modern structure built of the Edinburgh sandstone from the architectural designs of the celebrated Adams The general form is quadrangular with a square tower at each corner The whole of this elegant mansion is executed in the most classic taste of Roman architecture fluted semi columns of the Corinthian and Composite orders support cornices that are adorned with the most elaborate and beautiful carvings and embellished above by statues and vases highly ornamented Duff House contains many elegant apartments which are embellished by a profusion of paintings particularly portraits Among these are two fine heads of Charles I and his Queen several by Sir Joshua Reynolds by Rubens Sir Peter Lely Zucchero Kneller and other eminent masters The Library is a spacious room nearly seventy feet in length and extending the whole breadth of the building The books are numerous and well selected It is furnished also with many portfolios of the choicest prints In a small apartment adjoining is a cabinet of Roman and British coins and medals The Earl of Fife's park and plantations are upwards of fourteen miles in circumference The park is bounded by the two bridges of Banff and Alva and contains within its circuit a part of two counties and four parishes The pleasure grounds are laid out with much taste and elegance the walks are of great extent and variety some winding beautifully along the banks of the Deveron and others leading off in different directions to wide and distant plantations On a mount in the park formerly stood a chapel belonging to a convent of Carmelites with ground consecrated as a burying place Here many human bones were found and by the care of the late Lord Fife deposited in a large and beautiful urn elevated on a pedestal and placed on the spot On the same eminence overhanging the river his Lordship built an elegant mausoleum It is of Gothic architecture and surrounded by a shrubbery and forms a strik ing ornament to the park the windows are of painted glass in casements of stone and in front are placed two beautiful statues of Faith and Hope Among the monuments in the mausoleum is one of curious sculpture and great antiquity sacred to the memory of John Duff of Muldarot an ancestor of Lord Fife It was brought thither a few years ago together with the ashes of the deceased from the family burying place in the church of Cullen In this monument is rudely sculptured the figure of a warrior in a full coat of armour with this inscription Hic jacet Johannes Duf de Muldavat et Baldavi Obiit 2 Julii 1404 The family of Duff or Macduff is of great antiquity in Scotland Macduff Thane of Fife one of the most powerful subjects in Scotland excited a formidable revolt against the usurper Macbeth in the year 1056 which terminated in the defeat and death of Macbeth at Lunfanan in Aberdeenshire 5th December that year and the restoration of King Malcolm III to the throne of his ancestors Besides other privileges he was by his sovereign created Earl of Fife By the forfeiture of Murdac Duke of Albany 1425 the title of Earl of Fife was vested in the crown until it was revived in 1759 in the person of William Duff Lord Braco of Kilbryde who derived his descent from the ancient Earls of Fife James Duff the second Earl of Fife born in 1729 was a nobleman of highly independent character and whose memory claims the respect of the present age and the gratitude of posterity He greatly increased his extensive property by several purchases of land in the north of Scotland and embellished the face of the country by plantations on a magnificent scale covering no less than 14,000 acres of till then barren and unproductive land for which he twice obtained the gold medal from the Society for the Encouragement of Arts & c His Lordship died at his house in Whitehall London 28th January 1809 in his 80th year and was buried in the mausoleum at Duff House Leaving no issue he was succeeded by his brother the Hon Alexander Duff of Eight in Aberdeenshire a member of the Faculty of Advocates who in 1775 married Mary eldest daughter of George Skene of Skene and dying in April 1811 was succeeded by his son James Duff the present and fourth Earl of Fife a nobleman who greatly distinguished himself in the army during the Peninsular war 3

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