Nine centuries · c. 1160 – today

History of the House

A sourced chronicle, from the Norman knight who served the kings of Scotland to the feudal dignity that perpetuates its memory — where legend and archive meet without being confused.

The founding tradition · c. 980

The yoke that became a shield

Tradition holds that at the Battle of Luncarty, between the Scots and the Danish invaders, a ploughman named Hay and his two sons — armed with nothing but the yoke of their plough — halted the rout of their countrymen in a narrow pass and turned the tide of battle, saving King Kenneth III.

In gratitude, the king is said to have released a falcon from the summit of Kinnoull Hill, near Perth: all the land the bird overflew would pass to the hero and his line. The falcon crossed the rich lands of the Carse of Gowrie before alighting on a stone thereafter called the “Falcon Stone.”

From this legend proceed the arms of the house — argent, three escutcheons gules, recalling the yokes that became shields — and its motto, Serva Jugum, “keep the yoke.” The falcon remains its crest.

Recorded by the historian Hector Boece (Historia Gentis Scotorum, 1527) and earlier noted by Walter Bower (Scotichronicon, c. 1440). Modern historians regard it as legendary; it remains nonetheless the founding myth of Clan Hay, engraved in its heraldry.

Pl. IRoyal arms of Scotland — Carved stone

1160 – 1296

From the Cotentin to the Scottish court

Behind the legend stands a very real lineage. The house descends from the Scoto-Norman knight Guillaume de la Haye, attested in charters around 1160 and cup-bearer to Kings Malcolm IV and William the Lion. Genealogists trace his name to La Haye-Hue, in the Norman Cotentin.

The family already held the lands of Erroll, in Perthshire, a dignity received by marriage to Eva of Pitmilly around 1178. From cup-bearers to barons, the Hays rose through constant service to the Crown, until — at the turn of the 14th century — they stood among the most faithful supporters of an outlawed king: Robert the Bruce.

III

1306 – 1320

Bannockburn, or loyalty rewarded

Sir Gilbert de la Haye, fifth Baron of Erroll, shared in all of Bruce's perils. Present at his coronation at Scone on 27 March 1306, he commanded his personal guard at the defeat of Methven, followed him into the secrecy of the Highlands, then took part in the methodical recapture of the castles, one after another, until the decisive clash of 1314.

In the aftermath of Bannockburn, the grateful king made Sir Gilbert hereditary Lord High Constable of Scotland and granted him the lands of Slains, in Aberdeenshire. The military office and the coastal lordship entered the house together — never to leave it. In 1320, Sir Gilbert sealed the Declaration of Arbroath, by which the nobility of Scotland proclaimed its independence to the Pope.

The office

Lord High Constable of Scotland

Born under David I, first held by the Comyns — forfeited for having chosen the wrong side during the Wars of Independence — the office passed to the Hays by Bruce's grace. It makes the Constable the foremost officer of the Scottish army, second only to the king.

To him belonged the High Court of Constabulary, competent over riot, disorder and bloodshed within four miles of the king, the Council or Parliament; to him the Doorward Guard of Partizans, held to be the oldest bodyguard in Britain; and to him, finally, precedence over all titles of Scotland save the royal family alone.

The Act of Union of 1707 reduced its powers; the office remains, ceremonial, attached to the Earl of Erroll.

1306 – today

The age of the earls

Eleven landmarks of a history running from Bannockburn to contemporary feudal reform. The earldom and peerage remain borne by the Chief of Clan Hay; the feudal dignity of Slains is, today, distinct from them.

1306

The oath at Scone

Sir Gilbert de la Haye attends the coronation of Robert the Bruce at Scone on 27 March, with his brother Hugh. He would command the king's guard at Methven that same year, then follow him into the secrecy of the Highlands.

1314

Bannockburn & the Barony of Slains

In the wake of victory, Bruce confers upon Sir Gilbert the hereditary office of Lord High Constable of Scotland and grants him the lands of Slains, in Aberdeenshire. The coastal lordship becomes the lasting seat of the house.

1320

The Declaration of Arbroath

Sir Gilbert is among the barons who seal the Declaration of Arbroath, the assertion of Scottish independence addressed to the Pope. The house of Hay thus inscribes itself at the heart of the emerging nation.

1453

The Earldom of Erroll

On 17 March 1452/53, James II raises the family lands into the Earldom of Erroll for Sir William Hay, 1st Earl — joining to the earldom the lordships of Lord Hay (1449) and Lord Slains (1452) in the Peerage of Scotland.

1513

The sacrifice at Flodden

William Hay, 4th Earl, falls at Flodden beside James IV, whom he attended as Constable. Eighty-seven lairds bearing the name of Hay perished that day; none, it is said, returned alive.

1594

Glenlivet & the exile of Francis Hay

Francis Hay, 9th Earl, leader of the Catholic faction implicated in the affair of the “Spanish Blanks,” defeats Argyll at Glenlivet on 3 October — taking a bullet to the arm and an arrow to the thigh. James VI razes Old Slains; the Earl departs into exile.

1597

New Slains — Bowness

Returned to Scotland, Francis Hay raises on the cliffs of Cruden Bay a new seat, first named Bowness after a double rock arch resembling a bow. A courtyard and a square tower form its core.

1666

The regrant of succession

Gilbert Hay, 11th Earl, obtains on 13 November a regrant allowing him to nominate his heirs. Dying without direct issue, he thereby secures the survival of the title — a provision the House of Lords would confirm in 1797.

1837

The granite mansion

The 18th Earl commissions Aberdeen architect John Smith to rebuild Slains as a Scots Baronial mansion, faced in smooth granite, over three- and four-storey structures. Johnson and Boswell had already trodden these halls in 1773.

1916 – 1925

The sale and the ruin

Death duties force the 20th Earl to sell Slains in 1916. In 1925, the roof is removed and the stone dispersed: the castle becomes the wind-beaten shell that still commands Cruden Bay.

2004

The dignity, severed from the land

The Abolition of Feudal Tenure Act severs lordships of regality from land ownership: they become transmissible personal honours. The lordship of Slains thereafter survives as a feudal dignity, independent of any land.

1564 – 1631

Francis Hay, the rebel earl

No figure better embodies the torments of the house than Francis Hay, 9th Earl. Converted to Catholicism in a Scotland turned Protestant, he kept up a secret correspondence with Philip II of Spain and was implicated in the affair of the “Spanish Blanks” — those pre-signed blank sheets meant to seal a projected invasion.

On 3 October 1594, at Glenlivet, he defeated the royal army led by Argyll, carrying the day at the cost of a bullet to the arm and an arrow to the thigh. The reprisal was implacable: James VI marched north and razed Old Slains. Exiled, Francis returned in secret, abjured in 1597, fell again into disgrace, was excommunicated and imprisoned at Dumbarton until 1611. He died at Slains in 1631, leaving thirteen children.

Illuminated manuscript — Pl. IIIlluminated folio — 16th century

Serva Jugum
Motto of Clan Hay

VII

1666 – 2004

The survival of a dignity

The history of a house is measured also by its capacity to endure. In 1666, lacking a direct heir, the 11th Earl obtained the rare right to nominate his successors — a provision the House of Lords confirmed in 1797, when the title passed through the Livingston line. The castle, for its part, followed the fate of great houses: rebuilt as a granite mansion in 1837, sold in 1916, unroofed in 1925.

The stone became ruin, but the dignity endured. In 2004, the Abolition of Feudal Tenure (Scotland) Act severed lordships of regality from the land from which they sprang: become personal honours transmissible in law, they now survive independently of any estate. It is within this framework that the lordship of Slains is perpetuated today — not as a property, but as a living memory.

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Slains Castle The Lord of Regality