Life Below Stairs Exhibition

Life Below Stairs – New Exhibition for 2025  

In the latter half of the 19th century, life at Blair Castle depended not only on the grandeur above stairs, but on the tireless efforts of approximately 25 dedicated staff working quietly behind the scenes. When the Duke of Atholl and his family were in residence, the castle became a hive of activity, requiring meticulous maintenance, seamless organisation, and unwavering loyalty. 

Exhibition overview

Our new exhibition, Life Below Stairs, highlights several of these individuals, offering a captivating window into their lives, roles, and responsibilities. From the butler managing the wine cellar to housemaids fetching water and maintaining rooms, the exhibition focuses on the complex hierarchy and daily routines that defined domestic service. 

Designed to be interactive, Life Below Stairs features a host of hands-on displays. Visitors can look into the castle’s Secret Cellar, where bottles of Scotland’s oldest whisky were discovered, or try the butler’s bell box used to summon staff across more than 80 rooms.  A working Dumb Waiter demonstrates how meals, linens, and bathwater were transported between floors, while the Cabinet of Curiosities showcases objects from the castle’s kitchens and dining rooms. 

Authentic recreations of the housekeeper and the 6th Duke’s valet’s uniforms, help bring the period to life. Venturing further into the castle, guests can view the newly revealed servants’ staircase, spy the luggage lift in action, and spot a maid returning to her attic room with a Victorian ceramic chamber pot. 

Life Below Stairs is not only an informative exhibition—it is an invitation to walk in the shoes of those who made aristocratic life possible. 

Behind the scenes

The ‘Life Below Stairs’ exhibition at Blair Castle was created to shed light on the lives of the domestic staff who worked behind the scenes to keep the estate running. This exhibition was developed to offer visitors a more complete and human perspective of life at the castle—not just through the opulence upstairs, but through the eyes of those who lived and worked downstairs.

Curating the exhibition involved months of research into estate records, letters, and photographs. Original artefacts such as uniforms and kitchen items were gathered and displayed in their original settings, bringing authenticity and immediacy to the experience. We worked closely with a specialist exhibition design company to create bespoke interpretation pieces, including a striking installation built into the exact spot where the original dumb waiter once stood. This feature now houses a curated breakfast setting from our extensive china collection, cleverly linking the working world below stairs with the service above. Particular attention was given to recreating the bustling energy of the kitchen, the rigid structure of the housekeeper’s domain, and the quieter routines of the butler’s pantry and of course our secret cellar.

We undertook this project to highlight the contributions of the many men and women whose lives were integral to the smooth operation of Blair Castle and to the social fabric of its time. By inviting visitors to walk in their footsteps, we hope to foster appreciation and understanding of the complex world below stairs—one governed by strict etiquette, hard work, and moments of camaraderie.