The visit to Innes House on Saturday 14th October turned out to be the most popular event of our year, with 40 members meeting in the afternoon. There were some heavy showers and a brief hailstorm, but on the whole the weather was much better than the preceding or following Saturdays. We were welcomed by Jayne Booth, the events manager, and guided in three successive groups around the house by Kristy Langdale, the Innes House archivist. The house was built between 1640 and 1653 by Sir Robert Innes and remained the Innes family estate until it was sold to Sir James Duff, 2nd Earl of Fife in 1767. It was during the late eighteenth century that the parkland was planted with a variety of trees from all over the world, including the magnificent Lucombe Oak, planted in 1794. Early in the twentieth century the house was bought by Francis and Annie Tennant, and has been the Tennant family home ever since. It is now managed by Edward and Zoe Tennant, the fifth generation of the family. On the tour we visited the ballrooms, two very comfortable sitting rooms, filled with paintings and family photographs and one of the bedrooms, enlivened throughout by Kristy’s well-informed and affectionate stories about the house and its owners. We were also able to wander as we pleased throughout the gardens and grounds, dodging some very heavy showers of rain and hail, and admire some of the magnificent trees – the Lucombe oak, the Pacific Madrona, the 234-year-old larch tree and many others. I have attached some photos taken by Eric Jensen and Tim Heaps. More information : inneshouse.com
