Building record MHG24066 - Langwell Lodge

Langwell, the Scottish seat of the Duke of Portland, in Latheron parish, S Caithness, on a green eminence between confluent Langwell and Berriedale Waters, ¾ mile W of Berriedale. The estate was purchased by Sir John Sinclair in 1788 for £7000, by James Horne, Esq., in 1813 for £40,000, and by the fifth Duke in 1860 for £90,000, this enormous rise in value being due to the improvements carried out both by Sir John Sinclair and Mr Horne. By the Duke nearly all the property was converted into deer-forest. His cousin, John William Arthur Charles James Cavendish Bentinck, sixth Duke since 1716 (b. 1857; suc. 1879), holds 81, 605 acres in the shire, valued at £7902 per annum. <1>

Earliest records of the house on the present site date from c.1800 when a farmhouse was built for a Mr Horn. Langwell Castle and the lands associated with it were owned in former times by the Sinclairs. The estate was purchased in 1858 by the 5th Duke of Portland, when improvements were made to the house. The 5th Duke never lived in the house and died unmarried in 1879 when the title and estate passed to his cousin William, 6th Duke. The 6th Duke had many sporting interests; he was chairman of the 1st Royal Commission on Horsebreeding and he was the author of 'Fifty Years of Sport in Scotland', published by Faber & Faber in 1932. It was during this time that a 9-hole golf course was laid out in the park west of the house. He was succeeded in 1943 by his son William, the 7th Duke, who continued to keep Langwell up as a shooting lodge. His daughter, Lady Anne, succeeded in 1975 and, during this period, the walled garden has been restored to its former glory and the commercial nursery has been opened. <2>