Ditchley Foundation acquires Knockando Estate

Readars may be aware that I run the Who Owns Scotland website. It is funded by subscriptions and so if you do not already subscribe, I can thoroughly recommend it.

Every month I check records from one year past and update them as required. And so last month I found myself updating records I have last checked and created in May 2025. Every so often I uncover something interesting and so I thought I would share one from May.

The Knockando Estate is situated on then north bank of the River Spey a few miles west of Aberlour. It was historically owned by a member of the Grant family. In 1952 it was sold for £59,000 to Major Graeme Whitelaw. In 1962 the estate was sold to Major Hugh David Hamilton Wills, of the Wills tobacco family for £116,500. He transferred ownership to the Wills Trustees in 1966.

Major Wills is perhaps best known among outdoor enthusiasts for the Wills Trustees vs Cairngorm Canoeing and Sailing School Ltd. legal case of 1976 concerning access rights on the River Spey. The Sailing School at Loch Insh was founded (in an act of nominative determinism) in 1969 by Clive and Sally Freshwater.

As the Scotways report narrates,

The Sailing School organised courses of instruction in canoeing and sailing from Loch Insh, a small loch considerably further upstream, through which the River Spey flowed. Parties of canoeists from the Sailing School traversed the Knockando stretch of the river ten to twelve times each year during the summer season. The Wills Trustees claimed that their fishings at Knockando had been adversely affected by the passage of these canoes and they sought a Declarator that they had the exclusive right of navigation on the stretch of river flowing through their lands, and also sought Interdict against the Sailing School, maintaining that the Spey was a private river.

The case followed over 250 years of litigation.

The House of Lords ruled that there was a public right of navigation on the River Spey and had been since the 17th century when timber was floated down the river. The Sailing School won and thanks to their heroic efforts, the Spey remains free to navigate and provides an outstandingl outing for open canoes and other craft. In another act of nominative determinism, one of the Law Lords was called Lord Salmon.

In 1983, Knockando passed to David’s son Martin and, then in 1994, following Martin’s untimely death, the estate was transferred into the ownership of Dr Wills 1992 Settlement, the beneficiary of whom was Catherine Wills, the daughter of David and sister Martin.

Meanwhile, far away in Oxfordshire, Catherine’s father (who taken the canoeists to court) had acquired the Ditchley Estate from the 7th Earl of Wilton in 1953. He founded the Ditchley Foundation in 1958, a charitable organisation set up to promote international relations between the USA and the UK in the wake of the Second World War. Wills’ stately home, Ditchley Park was later donated to the Ditchley Foundation from where it still operates.

Catherine Wills died in 2022 with no heirs and in her will left £75 million, including the majority of Knockando Estate to the Ditchley Foundation who took title in July 2025. Knockando House was sold in 2024 for £6.2 million. The detached 1311 hectare Craigmill Estate [4.8Mb pdf] near Dallas is currently for sale.

The remainder of the estate is for the moment being retained by the Foundation which, according to its 2024-25 Annual Report,

“continues to explore how to make the most of the estate, including renewables potential, whilst respecting its heritage and communities as Catherine Wills would have wanted.”