CLIFTON HALL
Clifton Hall ©
The house was designed by David Bryce c1850, in the style of a Scots Baronial mansion (this is thought to be the third building on this site). A two-storey building with raised basement and first floor breaking eaves, attic at intervals.
Dovecot Clifton Hall ©
The Dovecote (early 19th century), is a symmetrical, ashlar octagonal dovecote sited above a low arched pend, with the date 1812 thereon.
Historical Background
By Donald Whyte F.S.A. Scot.
Reproduced in his memory, by kind permission of his widow.
The Estate
Clifton Hall, lying within the part of Kirkliston Parish which is in Midlothian and on the south bank of the River Almond, is one of the most interesting estates in the Lothians. It is beautifully situated, with an imposing mansion built in the Scottish Baronial style of architecture in 1857, attributed to David Bryce, and has a history to which few estates can lay claim and even fewer could verify.
David de Graham had, from King William the Lion (1165-1214), the lands of Montrose and the superiority of Clifton. About the beginning of the reign of Alexander the II (1214-1249), Sir Henry Graham of Abercorn gave a charter to his cousin, David Graham, of the lands of Clifton and Clifton Hall in Midlothian. Clifton Hall remained for centuries with that ancient family.
Provost and Lord of Session
In the 16th century, when records are more plentiful, we find that the owner of Clifton Hall was Thomas Macalzean, (See also Laing Charters ), of whom some interesting particulars are recorded.
On 10th June 1556, by command of the Queen Regent, he was deprived of his office of Assessor by the Town Council of Edinburgh, for “evil, heich, and unpleasant language to her Grace”, in the discharge of his official duties. The Assessor protested against this decree and after a lapse of a few months was restored by the Queen Regent.
On 8th October 1561, Thomas Macalzean, was elected Provost of Edinburgh. A cordial supporter of the Reformation, he was one of those appointed by the General Assembly to decide questions and revise sentences. In October 1570, he was appointed a Lord of Session in the room of Henry Balnavis, deceased, and took the title of Lord Clifton Hall. He died about 1581 leaving an only daughter and heiress Euphame.
Celebrated Witch
Euphame Macalzean was the most celebrated of all Scottish witches. After a long and notorious career she was tried by the High Court of Justiciary for numerous crimes ranging from common witchcraft to a conspiracy against the life of the King. She was sentenced to death by burning and paid the full penalty on the Castle Hill of Edinburgh on 25th June 1591. Euphame is the only Scottish witch on record to have been burned alive. Other offenders were always strangled by the common hangman before being burned at the stake. Her lands and goods were forfeited but her children were restored on giving up the lands to the King's favourite, Sandelands of Slammanan; as no male heirs existed little benefit could be reaped by the successors and the title Macalzean of Clifton Hall lapsed.
Persecutor of the Covenanters
A century later, the estate belonged to a family named Douglas. Nisbet, in his “System of Heraldry”, blazons the arms of Archibald Douglas of Clifton Hall thus: Ermine, on a chief Azure, three stars Argent a bordure Gules; Motto – “Meliora Speranda”. Archibald Douglas was a persecutor of the Covenantors and rode in the troop of the Laird of Hatton. Both these gentlemen were under the celebrated General Tam Dalyell of the Binns, who routed the Covenanting Army at Pentland and who raised the regiment known as the Scots Greys.
Wishart of Clifton Hall
In 1703 the estate was purchased by George Wishart, son of the Rev. William Wishart, minister at Kinneil. He served with Carmichael’s Regiment of Dragoon Guards, with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel and in 1706 was created baronet by Queen Anne. Sir George was an elder of the Church of Kirkliston and he gave annually one boll of meal to the poor. The following is extracted from the records of the Kirk Session: “14th March, 1714. ‘Inter Alia’ ordered Henry Gibb, Elizabeth Clathie and Janet Wilson, poor persons, to each of them a firlot (a quarter) of Sir George Wishart’s boll (140lbs) of meal.”
Fergusia, eldest daughter and heiress of Sir George Wishart married George Lockhart of Carnwath (b 1700) and was mother of James Lockhart-Wishart, one of the Lords of the Bed-Chamber to the King of Hungary. He was a Count of the Holy Roman Empire, a Knight of the Order of the Empress Maria Theresa and a General of the Imperial Forces. On the death in 1761 of his eldest son, George, who was a strenuous supporter of Prince Charles Edward Stuart, he sold Clifton Hall to Thomas Gibson of Pentland, one of the clerks to the Privy Council of Scotland.
The Maitland Family
By marriage of a grand-daughter of Thomas Gibson of Clifton Hall to Alexander Charles, son of the Hon. Alexander Maitland, first baronet of Clifton (England) and fifth son of Charles, sixth Earl of Lauderdale, the estate passed to the Maitland family. Sir Alexander Charles Maitland, the second baronet, fought in the American War and was present at the battles of Brandwine, Long Island and Bunkers Hill. He married a daughter of George Ramsay of Barntoun, an Edinburgh banker, and their son inherited the Barntoun estates in 1865 and assumed then the additional names of Ramsay and Gibson.
Clifton Hall remained in the possession of the family Ramsey-Gibson-Maitland until about 1880 when it was purchased by Robert Bell, a pioneer in the coal and shale oil industries who discovered sulphate of ammonia, one of the numerous by-products of shale.
Metamorphosis
The estate had been partly broken up when Robert Bell died at the end of the 19th century, leaving the remainder to his family. At the beginning of the 20th century the family sold the estate to Hillwood Co-operative Society who had already acquired one of the farms.
The Co-operative Society sold the policies to Argyll Lindsay, a grain merchant in Leith, and retained the well known farms of Clifton Mains and west Clifton. The Society held these farms (and the neighbouring farms of Bonnington, Claylands and Overshiel) until 1957, when they were sold to James Rennie of Ratho Mains, who then farmed Clifton Mains, having disposed of the other units. The policies were sold by Argyll Lindsay in 1929 to R. R. Killick, founder and first headmaster of the school.
The School
The school was founded in 1930 when the joint owner-headmasters, formerly teachers at Merchiston Castle School, Richard Killick and Captain Robert Ainslie admitted their first four boy boarders. The depression made early growth difficult but by the time Captain Ainslie left to found Blairmore School in Aberdeenshire in 1937 (closed 1994), the roll had grown to 43, three of whom were day boys. Although owned by Richard Killick and financed through fee income (£50 per term in 1930-47), Clifton Hall has always been a member of the International Association of Preparatory Schools comprising an active association of about 500 Preparatory Schools throughout Britain. These early years were, by all accounts, a time when parents rarely saw their offspring during term-time and entrusted the care of their boys entirely to Richard and Mabel Killick. Rugby, cricket and Latin feature heavily in the curriculum and with considerable sporting and academic success, the school’s reputation grew.
Further development was abruptly stopped by the war when the buildings and grounds were requisitioned by the Air Ministry which made Clifton Hall the administrative headquarters for RAF Turnhouse. Apparently a runway was constructed on adjacent fields to decoy German bombers from Turnhouse! The boys removed to Kinloch House, Amulree, Perthshire, home of Lord Salvesen, Mabel’s cousin.
After the war the school grew rapidly to a capacity of about 100 boarders from 8-13 years old. New rooms and facilities were added and the number of teachers increased. New playing fields were created. Richard Killick's ethos must have been very much in line with all prep school ethos. The children were taught citizenship: living together in this small community gave a unique opportunity to learn the skills of sharing and team spirit, as well as appreciating the civilisation in which they found themselves through the classics. Richard Killick retired in 1958 leaving a splendid school which he had nurtured from its conception.
His successor, Walter Mitchell, continued the good work including some ambitious school trips throughout Europe in a Ford Prefect but tragically died of leukaemia shortly after his failing health forced him to retire.
A teacher from Cargilfield, George Mathewson, then developed the school from 1962 until 1984. During these, years, he built and modernised, many parts including the pool, games hall and science laboratory. In 1964 the school ceased to be proprietorial and became a company limited by guarantee governed by a Board of Governors as it is today. Goerge Mathieson recognised the trend away from all boys/all girls boarding and introduced girls' weekly boarding, day children and lowered the entry age to five years of age.
At a time of rapid role change from all boarding, from boys to mixed and from older to younger, David Berkley took charge for three years. He and his wife Tish travelled the world in search of boarders and despite all the trends managed to retain a good number of boarding pupils.
Mark Adams was appointed in 1987. The trend towards younger day children continues. The nursery, opened in January 1989, is now the principal entry to the school. Full boarding was stopped in July 1994, weekly boarding ended in July 1996. The school's age range was adjusted from 3-13 to 3-11 in July 1995 and in many senses a new school has emerged to take into account parental wishes and academic continuity from P7-S1 at Senior School.