An interview with Alick & Aline Hay at Duns Castle

The Hay family bought Duns Castle in 1696 and have lived there ever since. William Hay was the second son of the 1st Earl of Tweeddale, and came from Yester at Gifford. The Earls first wife sadly died in childbirth, but he married again and part of the marriage contract was that the heir male of the marriage would inherit Drumelzier Estate near Broughton in Peebleshire in the Scottish Borders. However he and his new wife, Elizabeth Seton, didn’t like Drumelzier so they bought Duns and it gradually became their major home. Drumelzier went long ago, the story goes that he ran into financial difficulty having used his funds to redesign the house. Another William Hay rebuilt the house in 1820.

Mr Hay told us how his Father was brought up in Canada having emigrated there in the 1880's and Duns Castle went to his younger brother Frank. Frank married Laura Fordyce-Buchan who lived locally at Kelloe and had Kelloe House but the couple were both aged 40 when they married so had no children. Alick’s grandfather was therefore the only one to have sons, although the family has never quite worked out why, despite his father being the second son, his older brother was not chosen to inherit.

When Alick's Father came back from Canada having been to military college over there, he joined the Royal Scots in 1913 and spent the entire First World War in France, except when he was wounded 3 times. The Royal Scots are the oldest Infantry Regiment of the Line in the British Army and you can visit the museum today at Edinburgh Castle. After the war he remained in the army and commanded the 1st Battalion of Royal Scots and went off with the British Expeditionary Force in 1939. Fortunately for him when the Second World War started in 1939 they decided they wanted younger commanders to lead them so he was replaced by Christmas missing Dunkirk and enjoying a fairly quiet war.

Alick Hay was born 1948 and losing his father at only 19 years of age meant responsibility came early. He moved into the stable yard in 1976, and to the Castle in 1985 when his mother decided to move. As was explained to us "young ones" as I was delighted to be referred to, at that time death duties were 65% for the ordinary folks with top rate as high as 80%, so most of the estate was sold to pay that off, leaving only the Castle in good shape and everything else falling down with no money to spare.

"It was quite a responsibility. We thought we would have to give it a go, better to try and fail than not to try at all. I am an accountant and we always knew when we moved in 1985 that we couldn’t do what they wanted to do without generating some money. We had small children and set out to educate them privately."

The other side of the partnership is Aline, who is a MacDougall (more red tartan), and her family came from the west coast, but her father was an engineer from Glasgow so they travelled a lot, and lived in Cyprus and Malta and other lovely locations. We asked Aline how she felt becoming a Castle owner at such a young age and she recounted: "It was overwhelming to say the least. I can remember the architect sitting outside on the sundial outside and pointing out “this will need doing and this will need doing and this will need doing” and I thought do I really want to take this on? My saving grace is that I go day to day and week to week so I am not overwhelmed by looking too far ahead. We try and keep on top of maintenance well. Just this morning we had people on the roof this morning, water is the enemy!"

Unlike today, there was very little template as to what to do in those days, so Alick and Aline decided to do up bedrooms and welcomed their first guests to stay for the Open Golf tournament in 1987. Laughing, Alick said they almost never did it again as so exhausting and he had to retreat to the office to have a sleep at one point. With a limited number of staff they didn’t really know what to do, so they sat down with the guests and ate with them, stayed up until they had their brandy, and when they were asked for breakfast at 6am, jumped out of bed with 3 hours sleep to start all over again!

Following on from this they started to do shooting parties and were approached to do a wedding in 1991, and the Hay's believe they were probably first house in UK to do weddings. In those days this couldn’t be done in England, whereas in Scotland no-one had latched onto the fact that you could get married anywhere with the changes to marriage legislation in early 2000. And so began a whole new era as a wedding venue welcoming guests from all over the world, with over 700 weddings held at Duns Castle to date. Due to Covid-19 Mr and Mrs Hay have enjoyed the first rest they have had in years, with no guests and the house to themselves. Which they admitted has been wonderful (don't tell the guests!), however they are really pleased that of all the bookings they had from overseas and largely America for 2020, only 1 has actually cancelled, whereas the others have all said they will carry forward to 2021, so a busy year is afoot.

In addition Aline reported they have had a lot of interest for next year and where they feel the wedding market is almost saturated now, there is a new interest emerging for family gatherings, almost on a self catering basis, where the guests like to have the Castle to themselves for a short break, using the bedrooms and lounge areas, cooking for themselves and bringing a family group together. They usually have one or 2 gala dinners bringing in caterers and then do their own thing, eating in or out, playing golf and doing different activities together. What could be nicer than living in a Castle for a weekend?

Next year marks the Hay Clan Gathering up in Aboyne in Aberdeenshire however Mr & Mrs Hay often have to miss out on these events as they clash with the local Duns Show which is hosted in the Castle grounds. However they have fond memories of previous years, particularly the year when the Norwegian contingent of the clan came over in full traditional dress. Alick did admit he harbours a desire to go to some of the American games to meet some of the clan members from over the pond. Continuing the international theme a big celebration and garden party was planned to mark the 700th anniversary of Duns Castle with the original tower house being built by the Earl of Moray in 1320. The Hay Pipe Band, from Belgium, were going to come over for the celebrations with Philippe Vervoort as Pipe Major. Tom Hye is the driving force behind the Belgian branch and Convenor of Clan Hay for Continental Europe. He claims the Hays got to Belgium before they made it to Scotland, which Mr Hay did point out does make sense as Hay’s did originally come over from Normandy! Alick has been over to the Scottish days near Ghent and reported that although he doesn’t really drink whisky, he had more whisky that weekend than he had in a very long time.

There are so many stories to be told from the modern day with stars such as Robbie Fowler married at the Castle, Shirley Bassie attending the Hunt Ball, Ivana Trump visiting with Ivanca when she was only 15, the actor Charles Dance, Judi Dench for the filming of Mrs Brown and of course the entertaining Billy Connelly, who Aline reported was one of her favourite guests and did not swear once. Going further back the Pavilion Lodge at the Castle was the birthplace of John Duns Scotus, one of the most significant Christian philosophers of the 12th century. In the Billiard Room you can still find a copy of the Convenant signed by thousands in 1638, many with their blood, pledging to uphold the reformed religion "against all sorts of persons whatsoever" and calling for free parliaments and assemblies. Rather than back down Charles chose to lead an army north against his own subjects marching from York and taking up a position on the south bank of the Tweed at Berwick. In response a Scottish Covenanting army led by General Alexander Leslie took up camp on Duns Law to the north of the town. You can walk up the steps to the monument today or if you are around in July you can join the Common Riding which is part of the town's annual Reivers Week celebrations where boundaries are ridden on horseback and commemorates what some say that "Scotland retained her religious freedom not by Canon Law, not by Civil Law but by Duns Law."