‘It would be horrible if I had to turn this into a hotel’
Sotheby’s UK chairman Lord Dalmeny tells Eleanor Doughty of the stately job that was always coming his way
Ihear Harry Dalmeny before I see him. The UK chairman of Sotheby’s appears downstairs at Dalmeny House, pursued by his father’s Shetland collie, Suki, who is very much in charge. Dalmeny House is the seat of the Earl of Rosebery, which Harry – Lord Dalmeny to give him his title – will one day inherit. The house, 10 miles from Edinburgh, has a picturesque location on the Firth of Forth; Fife is directly across the water when visibility is good.
Some may say that Dalmeny is a view with a house attached, though this would be unfair to the 200-yearold stately. It was built in 1817 for the 4th Earl of Rosebery to a Tudor gothic design by William Wilkins. The estate has been in the Primrose family since 1662 when Sir Archibald Primrose, later Lord Justice General of Scotland and father of the 1st Earl of Rosebery, bought it.
Dalmeny wasn’t always the main house. Until 1817 the family lived at Barnbougle Castle, a 13th-century tower house closer to the shore. Legend has it that the decision to move was prompted by a 19th-century Primrose man who, being badgered to move out of the draughty house, was saying that “what was good enough for my grandfather should be good enough for my grandchildren”, when a wave whooshed through the window and extinguished his candle.
Today, as 200 years ago, Barnbougle makes up a critical part of the Rosebery estate. After the family moved out, it sat unused until 1881, when the 5th Earl and his wife Hannah de Rothschild restored it. After his wife’s death in 1890, Lord Rosebery, who became prime minister in 1894, retreated into Barnbougle, sleeping there and using the banqueting hall to practise his speeches. When he died in 1929, Barnbougle was closed again, and remained so until 2013 when a storm blew in. The damage was significant: the cellars were flooded, the house needed repointing, and the roof restoring. While they were there doing work, Lord Dalmeny explains, they wondered what other uses Barnbougle could have. In January, it opened as an exclusive use venue, with a fitting celebration – Lord Rosebery’s 90th birthday.
Up the hill, meanwhile, Dalmeny House is open to the public for tours during June and July. It boasts an impressive collection of French furniture acquired by the Rothschilds, Napoleon memorabilia arranged by the 5th Earl, and family portraits by Gainsborough. Lord and Lady Rosebery live upstairs in modest surroundings. There’s nothing as grand as a butler – “my mother hates having anybody fiddling,” says Lord Dalmeny. “Upstairs is her domain.”
From there, the view is extraordinary – but it is also a cause for concern. “The issue with this house is that the foundations are wooden pilings dropped into the sand,” says Lord Dalmeny. “As they have rotted away, we are conscious that there is a general lurch in the direction of the sea. While that adds somewhat to the drama of the situation, it’s not really something you want to be thinking about.” The biggest job facing the 51-year-old is how one props up a stately home. “If you dig down to look at the holes, you’re at risk of collapsing the whole thing.”
Dalmeny House is at the centre of Lord Rosebery’s 30,000-acre estate. The majority is forestry and moorland south of Edinburgh, and 5,000 acres are farmed in-hand. There’s fishing on the Harlaw reservoir at the Malleny estate, Bowbeat wind farm near Peebles, and 150 let residential properties. The estate “just about” washes its face. “If you took the house out it would probably be profitable in a good year, but with historic buildings, there’s always uses for any profits you might make.”
Lord Dalmeny spends “90 per cent” of his time in London as the public face of Sotheby’s. As such, though he is heir to the estate, he isn’t always around. The only son of the Roseberys’ five children, he shares the board table with two of his sisters, Lady Lucy Garton and Lady Jane Kaplan who, with her husband Michael, makes vermouth from their house on the estate.
There was never any question that the estates would eventually be Lord Dalmeny’s responsibility. “It has always been this way in our family, that we try to keep it all together,” he says. “It’s a home for my sisters and their children, but this is a job that I have long known has to be done.”
The Roseberys have made a conscious decision not to turn Dalmeny into another country house hotel. “What to do with this house when my parents die is a source of constant consideration for me,” says Lord Dalmeny. “It would be horrible if I had to turn it into a hotel, I wouldn’t feel I had succeeded. On the other hand, keeping a house shut up in order to keep people out?” Currently, Lady Rosebery shows the house to people. “But you can’t have a functioning visitor business with one 90-year-old countess walking around it,” he adds.
Lord Dalmeny, who has five children aged 13 to 16, has no desire to give up his day job at Sotheby’s. “I do find it troubling that my professional career has been doing something completely different,” he says.
“What I need to do is protect my parents in their home. If I start changing things while they’re alive in ways that cause them grief, I’ll have done a bad thing. I’ve come to terms with the fact that this has to be the governing job of my life.”
‘As the wooden pilings have rotted away… there is a general lurch in the direction of the sea’
‘You can’t have a visitor business with one 90-year-old countess walking around it’