Dunrobin Castle (16)
According to Wikipedia, William, 18th Earl, &quot;had a daughter Elizabeth whom William dropped on her head whilst playing, causing serious and permanent injury.&quot;  It doesn't seem to have held her back too much in life however!  When the earl died without a son in 1766, Elizabeth became Countess of Sutherland.  She married George Granville Leveson-Gower (pronounced &quot;Loosen Gore&quot;!), Viscount Trentham, later Marquess of Stafford, who also succeeded to the vast estates of his maternal uncle Francis Egerton, 3rd Duke of Bridgewater.  

While her husband also had other interests in various parts of the country, and was for a while British Ambassador to France, the Countess in particular took great interest in the improvement of the Sutherland estate.  The Sutherland Clearances were the consequence, an emotive subject about which people still have strongly held opinions to this day (regardless of whether they know anything about the subject or not).  

Whether clearing people off the land was justified or not, if you read into the subject, it becomes clear that Countess Elizabeth's motives were honourable.  It is certainly the case that the people cleared off the Sutherland estate were much better treated than those cleared off most other estates.  George Granville Leveson-Gower was created 1st Duke of Sutherland in 1833, shortly before his death.  In 1837 an enormous statue of him was erected behind Dunrobin on Ben Bhraggie, which remains an object of contention to this day.  There have been both legal and illegal attempts to remove it.

(Countess Elizabeth led an interesting life!  Quite apart from the events described above, she met Bonnie Prince Charlie late in his life, whom she described as 'an old infirm and broken down man'. During her husband's ambassadorship in Paris she did 'all in her power' to help Marie Antoinette and her son to escape. This led to the couple's arrest, and and they were only allowed to leave France and return to Britain 'after some trouble'.)
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