Friday Real Estate Porn - The Houses of the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensbury

On Wednesday, I had the privilege of attending a dinner held at the Metropolitan Club here in New York by the National Trust of Scotland. The guest of honor was the 10th Duke of Buccleuch who is also the 12th Duke of Queensbury, and the head of Clan Scott (Sir Walter Scott was a distant relative). Yes, he is a double duke (There are only a few dukes who are double Duke's, they include The Duke of Hamilton and Brandon, The Duke of Atholl, and the Duke of Richmond, Gordon and Lennox). Despite the plethora of Dukes in romantic fiction, currently there are only 26 non-royal dukes in the UK. The Duke of Buccleuch is the largest private landowner in the UK (after the Queen), he owns 4 houses, 3 in Scotland and 1 in England. He also has a pretty sizeable art collection including a Da Vinci valued at 30 million pounds that was stolen a few years ago and recently returned.

According to Wikipedia, he's descended from Charles II's son The Duke of Monmouth who married the daughter of the Earl of Buccleuch.  The King made Monmouth, Duke of Buccleuch and also made his wife Duchess in her own right. For some reason, probably because he died in the rebellion after Charles II's death, I assumed that he died without issue, but he and his wife had 8 children. The Dukedom of Queensbury was added when one of the Duke's married the daughter of the Duke of Queensbury.  For those who are interested, the current Duke has a son, his heir, the Earl of Dalkeith who is 25 and single.

Bowhill

Boughton House

Drumlanrig Castle

This is the Duke's principal seat. 3 Nights at the castle went for something like $12,000 at the silent auction

This is Dalkeith, just outside of Edinburgh, which is let to the University of Wisonsin, for their study aborad program. Yes, 60-70 students get to live in a ducal estate while they study.