Scenery and Scandal

On a rare sunny day in the North East, we visited the grounds of a local estate that was once home to the players in a celebrated scandal.

Gibside Hall

Gibside Hall must have been magnificent in it's heyday, but fell into disrepair when the Bowes-Lyon family scaled back their lavish estates in the 1920's. Many of the fittings from the Hall were transferred to Glamis Castle, childhood home of HM Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother.

Gibside Bath House

It is another female resident of Gibside Hall, however, who featured in the celebrated scandal. Mary Bowes, who became Countess of Strathmore and Kinghorne on her first marriage, was the wealthiest heiress in Great Britain, when her father died when she was 11 years old.


Her disastrous second marriage is the subject of the book, Wedlock by Wendy Moore, who describes Mary's second husband as "Georgian Britain's worst husband". Mind you, Mary, who was pregnant with a child who was neither by her first or second husband at the time of the second marriage was no paragon of virtue either :)

Liberty Monument

The Liberty Monument above was built in Mary's time at the Hall, so would have seen some very interesting comings and goings in its time :)