Leith-Hay
Family Archive
Est. 1650
Leith Hall, Kennethmont Aberdeenshire, Scotland
FAMILY HISTORY
Welcome to the Leith-Hay family site. These pages are for anyone with an interest in Leith Hall, Kennethmont, Aberdeenshire. They are intended to encourage visitors to explore the house, now under the care of the National Trust for Scotland, and to experience it as it has been preserved: much as it was when one family lived there for 300 years. This site also serves as an archive of the Leith family, and later the Leith-Hay family, whose connection with the house continued until the last two chiefs of the House of Leith passed away in 1939. It is intended for the many descendants of Charles Edward Norman Leith-Hay’s sisters, and for the last generation of the Leith-Hay family, helping to preserve part of the family’s heritage in the north-east corner of Aberdeenshire.
Heritage News
Leith-Hay Family News
About Britain – Leith Hall
For a turn of the 1980s flash back to Leith Hall in 1979, About Britain made an episode on the Hall and NTS staff and life in at the property.
Friends of Leith Hall
Support the property, NTS staff, and local volunteers by joining the Friends of Leith Hall Facebook Group for updates, events, and community news.
Pitsligo’s Horse 1745-46
This publication describes the actions and movements of Pitsligo’s Horse, a cavalry unit in the Jacobite Army of 1745-46 rebellion.
Salamanca 1812
Chapter 5 covers General James Leith’s 5th Division fighting Maucune’s French division at the Battle of Salamanca.
Military Heritage
From the 1745 rebellion to WWII
The Leith-Hay family had a rich military tradition, which helped a rural Aberdeenshire family of local gentry rise to prominence during Britain’s emergence as a world power. The family’s military involvement ranged from Andrew Hay of Rannes’s role in the 1745 Jacobite rising with Pitsligo’s Horse, to later territorial soldiering and competition with the Duke of Gordon in raising regiments in the north-east for the Revolutionary Wars. The family reached its military heyday through Andrew Leith-Hay’s service in the Peninsular War as an exploring officer and aide-de-camp to his uncle, Lieutenant General James Leith, commander of the 5th Division in Wellington’s army. Andrew’s son, Alexander Sebastian, continued the tradition into the mid-1800s during Britain’s expansion and conflicts, while his great-grandson, Charles Arthur O’Neill Leith-Hay, died tragically in September 1939 at the start of World War II, ending the male line.
"Trustie to the End"
— Leith-Hay Family Motto —
Spare Naught
The 1819 Tartan
First recorded in 1819, the Hay and Leith tartan is the oldest of the Clan Hay tartans on record. It can be found at Locharron.
Are you interested in the family history?
We invite you to contribute to this living archive. Share your stories, documents, and photographs.