Castle’s female legacy
Discover remarkable women behind historic site
An iconic Perthshire castle has highlighted the role women have played in its history.
Blair Castle reopens this week led by Sarah Troughton, pictured bottom, the senior trustee of Atholl Estates.
The castle already owes much to the dowry of one woman – Lady Amelia Stanley in the 18th Century - and its fortune to the hard work of generations of strong women.
Sarah’s mother, her greatgrandmother and a duchess, all provide a family lineage of business acumen, good sense and communitymindedness that ensures Blair Castle and all its historical treasures remain open and accessible to the public today.
Other notable women connected with the castle include Duchess Katharine, the 8th Duke’s wife.
She became Scotland’s first female in MP. Not short on courage, she travelled to Gallipoli in WWI with her husband and tended injured troops in hospital there.
Later she travelled to Spain during the Civil War to support the revolutionary troops against the fascists. At home, she immersed herself in education and health projects, supporting numerous children’s charities.
By 1920, she was on 25 local committees, which led her into politics and a principled stand alongside Churchill in her condemnation and fear of the rise in of Nazism in Germany.
Sarah’s great-grandmother, the Viscountess Cowdray saved the castle from bankruptcy in 1932. She bought the estate for the sum of its debts from the 8th Duke of Atholl, who while a formidable soldier and noted military strategist during the First World War, was hopeless at running the estate.
The stock market crash of 1929 and huge death duties left Blair Castle in a precarious state.
It took the Viscountess two years to negotiate the deal, which would mean that her grand-daughter, Angela Pearson, who was engaged to the Duke-apparent, Anthony, would have a family home.
Under the terms of the purchase, the estate would be run by the Viscountess’s business advisers and four years later, the castle was opened to the public: the first privately owned estate to open its doors in this way.
Duchess Kitty and Viscountess Cowdray forged a path that Angela Pearson followed. World War II had challenged the convention for women to remain housewives and with her son Iain set to become the 10th Duke of Atholl, Angela took direct control of the family business.
On the Atholl Estate her legacy is seen in the buildings which she worked tirelessly to restore and modernise.
Reflecting on her ancestors,
Sarah said: “Annie, Viscountess Cowdray was an ambitious wife and prominent liberal. She had married into the successful Pearson family business and was very diligent about fulfilling the duties that her position in life merited. It was all about hard work.
“She could be very stern, but was wonderful, and by all accounts could also be tremendous fun.
“She was no match really for the 8th Duke, who had plenty of charm and everyone adored him, but no head for business. It is always surprising that with a wife as capable as Kitty, that the Duke didn’t seek her advice more, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. “Kitty was a remarkable woman and clearly had strong opinions. It is her sense of community that resonates most in the castle today. “In Angela, my mother,
Blair Castle had a woman with a strong social conscience and a formidable head for finance. After the war, she made a huge contribution to the renovation of the estate cottages, many of which had no running water. At that time, that meant a determined pursuit of supplies, which were hard to get.”
Blair Castle reopens to the public on Wednesday, April 28.
Sarah added: “The months of closure because of the pandemic has given us all time to reflect on how the castle is set up for visitors. I’ve lived in the castle on and off all of my life and it is important to me that it retains its authenticity. I want the visitor to see not only the castle’s place in history, but also its role as a home, where everything in it was bought for a personal reason.”