There have been people living at Haddo for thousands of years, and the earliest signs of people here are the Bronze Age settlements just north of the estate.

For over 500 years, Haddo has been home to the Gordon family.

The first known house on the site was the House of Kellie, the original home of the Gordon family at Haddo. In 1732 the House of Kelly was demolished and work began on the new Haddo House. Discoveries in August 2011, found ruins underneath the front lawn of Haddo House, and it’s likely that the current house was built on top of the ruins of the one that had been razed to the ground.

The current Haddo House was commissioned by the 2nd Earl of Aberdeen and designed by the celebrated architect William Adam.

The current Haddo House was commissioned by the 2nd Earl of Aberdeen and designed by the celebrated architect William Adam. It has since been modified, extended and destroyed (most notably by a fire in 1930 which devastated the south wing) but the mansion as we see it today still has Adam’s original Palladian design at its heart.

In the late 19th century, the farmland surrounding the park was extensively landscaped by the 4th Earl of Aberdeen. This involved planting thousands of trees, creating the artificial lakes and building many of the monuments which still survive in the park.

On the death of the 4th Marquess, the house and the surrounding designed landscape passed into public ownership. Since then both house and gardens have been open to the public, in the care of the National Trust for Scotland and Aberdeenshire Council.

Haddo is now one of the most popular visitor attractions in Scotland with upwards of 220,000 visitors every year.