Hay History

This family descend from powerful Norman princes who followed William the Conqueror to England in 1066. Several places in Normandy include the word Haye from haie, hedge or stockade. The name was translated into Gaelic so that the Chief of Clan Hay is known to this day as Mac Garaidh Mor. Garadh means a wall or dyke, as well as a garden, and thus preserves the more significant meaning of La Haie, a defensive stockade.

The first of the name in Scotland was William de la Haye; he came from the village of the name in La Manche, was butler to William the Lion and obtained lands in Errol in the Carse of Gowrie at the end of the 12th century. The family rose rapidly in importance, becoming lords of Errol and Lord High Constables of Scotland. Other branches became earls of Kinnoull and marquesses of Tweeddale. Among the lands they supplanted was the former Comyn stronghold of Slains on the coast of Buchan, from which the officer-of-arms of the Lord High Constables of Scotland derives his title, Slains Pursuivant. It was occupied by the Hays until James VI demolished it in 1595 after the 9th Earl joined in an attempted Catholic coup d’etat.

Sir Thomas Hay, 7th Baron of Erroll, married Elizabeth, daughter of Robert II and was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Central Scotland. Sir Gilbert Hay fought for the cause of Joan of Arc and attended the coronation of Charles VII of France at Rheims. From him descend the Hays of Delgatie, whose castle near Turriff is now restored as the clan centre. James Hay, created Earl of Carlisle, was also proprietor of what were called the Carlisle Islands. These were annexed to the crown in the 17th century and are now called Barbados.

Meanwhile the un-enobled Hays also flourished, producing a distinguished family of jurists in the 16th and 17th centuries, and multiplying until in the 1950’s their name became the eighty-second most common in Scotland; although it has now lost that position the name is still very frequent in the Aberdeen area, with strong representation in Tayside also. In 1950 Diana, Countess of Erroll, founded the Clan Hay Society, which now has branches throughout the world. Her son succeeded as 24th Earl, and chief in 1978.