Exquisite, ethereal and impossibly elegant, Dalhebity House is like something straight out of the Netflix period drama The Crown.
And the royal connection doesn’t end there as this was once home to Baroness Fermoy, Princess Diana’s maternal grandmother and close friend of the Queen Mother who was depicted in the latest series of the TV show.
“We are very proud of the Royal Family connections and it’s certainly been a talking point over the years,” said Stewart Milne, the north-east property tycoon who has put the home he has loved for the past 40 years on the market for £7.5m.
With so much royal history attached to the site, we take a step back in time to find out more about its former regal occupants.
Baroness Fermoy
The property was the stately home and birthplace of Ruth Sylvia Gill, mother of Frances Shand Kydd, Princess Diana’s late mother.
Miss Gill lived in the magnificent granite mansion with her mother, also Ruth, and father, Colonel William Smith Gill, a Scottish landowner, until she married the wealthy Maurice Roche, 4th Baron Fermoy and became Baroness Fermoy and a confidante of the Queen Mother.
This was the link that brought the late Princess Diana’s family into intimate contact with the Royal Family.
Royal circle
Appointed as the “Extra Woman of the Bedchamber” by the Queen Mother and latterly the “Woman of the Bedchamber” in 1960, Lady Fermoy became an integral part of the Queen Mother’s inner circle.
Due to her close bond with the Queen Mother it was assumed that Lady Fermoy had set up their grandchildren, the Prince of Wales and Lady Diana.
Yet the opposite was actually true, as Andrew Morton writes in his biography of the Princess, Lady Fermoy actually advised Diana against the union. Sadly Lady Fermoy passed away on July 6 1993.
Dalhebity House
Forever eying up the magnificent stately home on his way to work, Stewart Milne jumped at the chance to buy the piece of history when it went on the market 40 years ago.
“Back in the early Eighties, we lived in Milltimber and I passed Dalhebity on my way to work at Westhill almost every day,” said Stewart.
“Initially I eyed it up as a development opportunity, but once we had the opportunity to view the house and the grounds, we fell in love with it and were determined to acquire it as our family home.”
For 28 years, Stewart and his family lived in the original Dalhebity House, in Bieldside.
In 2007, Stewart gained planning permission from Aberdeen Council to knock it down and build it from scratch, restoring the property to its former glory.
