It’s months since we visited Aberdeenshire, but it’s only now that I’m getting around to blogging about our visit to Leith Hall near Kennethmont. The oldest part of the building dates from 1650, but it has been added on to over the centuries. Like many such grand houses it was made into a temporary Red Cross hospital during World War 1.

In 1945 Leith Hall was presented to the National Trust for Scotland. As you can see from the photo below it’s a good place to have a snack or some ice-cream.

This house apparently has quite a reputation for being haunted and according to Wiki the writer Elizabeth Byrd and her husband rented 16 rooms in Leith Hall in the 1960s and she later wrote about her paranormal experiences there! The hall is set in a 286 acre estate.

In 1745 the then owner of the hall fought on the Jacobite side, below are some relics of the time.

Strangely there’s a scarf which apparently belonged to Napoleon on show, nice scarf but the photo is blurry as you can see.

It’s the gardens that impressed me most though. We had a lovely afternoon here last August on what was a beautiful day, it’s definitely worth a visit if you’re in the Aberdeenshire area. This place isn’t very far from Balmoral, but we decided to leave that for another trip. I sort of wish we had gone then as the Queen was there at the time – for the last time.