History of Stobhall

The Drummonds were ardent and active Jacobites (supporters of the exiled Stuart monarchs, who had been overthrown in a coup in 1688.) and the Earl of Perth was created a Jacobite Duke in 1689. After the 1745 uprising the Perth estates were confiscated. Stobhall itself, and part of the Stobhall estate, were deemed to be the dowery of the dowager Duchess of Perth and she was allowed to continue to live here until she died in the 1780’s.

From 1784 the confiscated Jacobite estates were mostly returned to their owners. The Perth estates became separated from the Earldom of Perth and the last Drummond daughter of the line which received the estates married the family of the Baron Willoughby De Eresby, later created Earls of Ancaster. Drummond Castle is now owned by Baroness Willoughby De Eresby. In the early 1950’s her father the late Earl of Ancaster, having inherited Drummond Castle and Stobhall, was on the verge of giving the latter into the care of the nation when approached by his kinsman (John) David Drummond, the 17th Earl of Perth, who wanted to acquire Stobhall to turn back into a family home.

At that time Stobhall was in need of much work. It had been looked after sensitively by the Ancaster Drummond family, and the Chapel and Castle were re-roofed in the 1880’s. However, by the 1950’s the Dower House was in a very bad way and there were considerable problems with land slippage down towards the burn. David Perth and his dynamic American wife Nancy devoted themselves to the restoration of Stobhall. The Dower House was riddled with wet and dry rot and had to be almost gutted and re-roofed, leaving only the stone staircase and it’s wonderful plaster ceiling. They built the passage which connects the Dower House to the Kitchen. Later, in 1965, they built the Library on the site of a pair of earlier decrepit cottages. Massive work was required to stabilise the courtyard because the Pend and burn side wall were slipping into the den.

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