The Heugh Hotel

The Heugh (from the Gaelic - meaning top of the hill ) was originally built as a private residence in 1898 for a Mr.Sidney Herbert.

Mr Herbert was a member of the stock exchange who lived in Surrey. He was also a shareholder in the railway line and through that aquired the land on which the Heugh stands.

The architect was Mr.James Soutar who designed many fine buildings in Aberdeen including the Baptist Church in Crown Terrace, the Congregational Church in Belmont Street and the Salvation Army Citadel.

In 1901 Mr.Herbert's wife, Wilhelmina, died at the age of 32. Five years later he re-married to a Doris Cooper. The Heugh at that time had a large garden, a wood, stream, pond and tennis courts. In the winter the courts were flooded and when they froze over they were used for skating.

In 1915 Sidney lost a son, Hugh Leslie, a lieutenant in the Gordon Highlanders, in the Great War. He was 19.

The Herberts settled their accounts with the local traders in 1919 and the family moved south. The house was bought for £4,000 by a Mrs.Alice Mitchell who sold it three years later to Robert Falconer (of Kinnear and Falconer). The Falconers lived at the Heugh for fourteen years and then sold it to Harry Thomson for £8,000. Harry's father was Provest of Stonehaven and also a member of the licensing court. Harry applied for a Hotel Certificate which was duly granted (1937).

In Feb.1946 Thomson sold the hotel to The Heugh Hotel Ltd. Which was registered at 58 Dee Street, Aberdeen and whose directors were William Leslie and David Gardener. They employed a Mr.Forbes as manager but the hotel must have run into trouble because the next owner bought it from the Clydesdale bank. She was Mrs.Euphemia Gilbert, a wine and spirits merchant from Ardrossan and probably a rich widow. This was in 1950. Five years later she sold to Douglas and Margaret Brown who in turn sold to Jeanette Ross (whose parents were also in the trade being owners of The Stonehaven Hotel, which is now the Hook and Eye bar). She had the hotel for three years and in 1962 sold it to the Samways.

They ran it as a successful business until 1970 when they first sold the land on which Westfield Park is built to Bremner King, a building contractor from Newtonhill and then sold the premises and remaining land to Georgie and Gordon Thompson. He had just returned from the West Indies where he had worked for the Texaco oil company. In 1980 the hotel changed hands again. This time it was bought by the Hamiltons. He was a Grampian Television executive and Mrs.Hamilton was a teacher in business studies and they sold The Heugh two years later to Jenny and Ken Anderson. We took over from the Andersons on March 1st 1984.