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JA Mar Hall Scotland
Bishopton, Scotland, United Kingdom · JA Resorts · Accessible Luxury
Sir Robert Smirke, then also at work on the British Museum, designed Erskine House in 1828 for Major General Robert Walter Stuart, 11th Lord Blantyre. Blantyre was killed in Brussels in 1830 and never saw it finished. The Category A mansion, completed in 1845, became a hospital for limbless sailors and soldiers in 1916, then a hotel in 2004. JA reopened it in May 2025 on 240 acres above the Clyde, with 74 rooms.
- 74 rooms
- Opened 2004
- Neighborhood: Erskine
- Architect: Sir Robert Smirke
About JA Mar Hall Scotland
- The stone came from a quarry on the estate and the oak inside came from Quebec. Sir Charles Barry laid out the gardens. The house cost about £50,000.
- The old Picture Gallery, now the Grand Hall, runs 118 feet. The entrance hall is a high rib-vaulted room in the manner of Fonthill.
- Condé Nast Traveller readers ranked the house 20th in the world in their 2025 Readers' Choice Awards.
- Dave Thomas designed the Earl of Mar golf course, opened in 2010. The BBC has named Beyoncé and Brad Pitt among guests from before the JA years.
History
The lands were the Erskines', later Earls of Mar, then the Blantyres' from 1703. In 1828 Major General Robert Walter Stuart, 11th Lord Blantyre, commissioned Sir Robert Smirke, architect of the British Museum, to replace the old house. Smirke's design is Tudor-Gothic, not the museum's classicism, with a giant porte-cochere. Blantyre was killed in Brussels in 1830. The house, Erskine House, was finished in 1845 for about £50,000, with estate stone and oak from Quebec. Sir Charles Barry designed the gardens. After the Blantyre line ended in 1900 the house stood empty, then opened in 1916 as the Princess Louise Scottish Hospital for Limbless Sailors and Soldiers. A £15 million restoration turned it into a hotel in 2004, under the Earl of Mar name and known locally as Mar Hall. It went into administration in 2023. Dutco, parent of JA Resorts, bought it and reopened the house in May 2025 with 74 rooms after a refurbishment reported at more than £25 million.
The setting
Mar Hall Drive, Bishopton, on the old Erskine estate, about 240 acres above the Clyde with the Kilpatrick Hills across the water. The newer Erskine Hospital buildings sit on the eastern part of the same ground. Erskine village is a short way southeast.
Awards
- Condé Nast Traveller Readers' Choice Awards (2025)
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