# Leslie House

Leslie House in Leslie, Fife — a Grade A listed historic building in the County — is the largest and earliest Restoration house in Fife, Scotland, and was the seat of the Earls of Rothes for over 250 years, remaining today still the seat of the Barony and Lordship of Leslie. Sir Robert Spencer-Nairn acquired the house in 1919, and in 1952 donated it to the Church of Scotland. After having been sold for redevelopment in 2005, the building suffered severe fire damage. The restoration work finally started in 2021 and it is nearing completion.

## History

It was built for John Leslie, the Duke of Rothes between 1667 and 1674 and this became the seat of the Rothes family. The house which was dubbed Villa De Rothes was the centre of life in the village and once rivalled Holyrood Palace for both size and glamour. A 1667 extension was by a design of William Bruce. The writer Daniel Defoe defined it 'the Glory of the Place, and indeed of the whole Province of Fife'. When a fire destroyed the building in 1763, the north, east and south wings were demolished. Only the west wing was retained and this was reconstructed between 1745 and 1747. From 1904 to 1919, Leslie House was the home of Noëlle, Countess of Rothes, a noted philanthropist who became famous as a heroine of the Titanic disaster in 1912. Shortly after, during World War I the Countess of Rothes converted a wing of Leslie House into a hospital for wounded soldiers invalided from the Front. Her husband, the 19th Earl of Rothes sold Leslie House in 1919 to a Capt. Crundall, who then sold it on to Sir Robert Spencer-Nairn the same year.
The house was gifted by the Spencer-Nairn’s to the Church of Scotland after the Second World War, in 1952, for use as an eventide home, necessitating substantial internal alterations. A developer called Sundial Properties purchased Leslie House in 2005 from the Church of Scotland, planning to convert it into 17 luxury flats, with 12 detached homes within the grounds, but it was again severely damaged by fire in February 2009. In 2017 a second developer, Byzantian Developments, reached an agreement to purchase Leslie House from Sundial Properties and eventually obtained full authorisation from the Fife Council to restore the building into 28 flats, with an enabling development of 8 new build dwellings. The restoration is as of 2025 mostly complete.

## Architecture and fittings

The architecture and fittings were described by Leighton in 1840: "It originally formed a quadrangle, enclosing in the centre an extensive court-yard, but three of the sides were burnt down in December 1763. The fourth side was repaired, and forms the present house. The picture gallery in this part of the building, which is hung with portraits of connections of the family, is three feet longer than the gallery at Holyroodhouse."
Among the several pictures at Leslie House in the mid 19th century mentioned by Leighton, "were those of the fifth Earl and his Countess, by Jamieson, the Duke and Duchess of Rothes, the celebrated Duke of Lauderdale and his Duchess, the Princess of Modena; General John, Earl of Rothes, by Sir Joshua Reynolds; Archbishop Tillotson; and a portrait of Rembrandt by himself." A portrait of the Princess of Modena and a large collection of family portraits are also mentioned.
The house featured several tapestries including, the story of Leander; the history of the children of Israel's journey through the wilderness; and the anointing of Saul. In the mid 19th century, the relics preserved in the house included the dagger with its sheath used by Norman Leslie, master of Rothes, at the murder of Cardinal Bethune; and the sword of State carried by the Duke of Rothes at the coronation of Charles II at Scone.

## Grounds

Blackwood (1836) remarked that: "The plantations of Leslie House are remarkably fine. The species that thrive best seem to be ash, elm, common beech, oak, and the silver-fir. The larch does not thrive so well ... The beech avenue at Leslie House is well worthy of attention; the trees are about 200 years old, several of them measuring 16 feet 8 inches, at 4 feet from the ground."