Lennoxlove is the family estate of Lord Blantyre. Lennoxlove House in Haddington, anciently called Lethington, was at one time the seat of the Lords of Blantyre.
The original tower belonged to the Maitland family from 1345 and was the birthplace of John Maitland, Duke of Lauderdale (1616-82).
The property was purchased in 1702 for Alexander, 5th Lord Blantyre and was named Lennoxlove in honour of his aunt, the Duchess of Richmond and Lennox, who gave him the means of purchasing it, by leaving him £50,000 in her will, a huge fortune at that time. The Duchess whose family line was the Stewarts of Lennox, instructed the trustees to find a house for her impoverished nephew and name it “Lennox’s Love to Blantyre”. This was soon abbreviated to its present name, Lennoxlove.
The tower is of great antiquity, with walls 25 metres high and 3 to 4 metres thick, and is unsurpassed in strength and height by any similar tower in Scotland. When Charles Walter Stewart, 12th and last Lord Blantyre died in 1900, he left no male heir and the property passed to his second daughter, Ellen and her husband, Sir David Baird of Newbyth.
The Duke of Hamilton purchased Lennoxlove in 1948 and it is now his family home.
From “Blantyre Explained” by Paul Veverka (c) 2016