Helen Hope, Countess of Haddington

Helen Hope, Countess of Haddington (167719 April 1768) was a Scottish forester. She planted many trees in Haddingtonshire and created Binning Wood at Tyninghame.

Early life Helen Hope was born to Lady Margaret Hamilton and John Hope in Kirkliston, Linlithgowshire. She was baptised on 28 September 1677. Hope's brother Charles was born in 1681 and later became a peer and governor of the Bank of Scotland. When she was five, her father drowned whilst travelling with the Duke of York (later to be King James VII of Scotland).

Career

Hope lived with her husband at Leslie House in Fife and had the first of four children, who was named Charles and had the title of Lord Binning from birth. In 1700, the family moved to the earl's ancestral home, Tyninghame House in Haddingtonshire. Hope immediately wanted to plant trees despite the initial lack of interest of her husband and local people. Her husband wrote Short Treatise on Forest Trees (published posthumously in 1756 and later reissued as Treatise on the Manner of Raising Forest Trees in 1761), in which he praised Hope's efforts.

Marriage and issue Hope's mother arranged her marriage to her first cousin Thomas Hamilton, 6th Earl of Haddington in 1696, both being grandchildren of John Hamilton, 4th Earl of Haddington, at which point she became the Countess of Haddington.

Binning Wood was clearfelled in the 1940s as part of the war effort. The Landowners’ Co-operative Society Limited of Edinburgh recorded 89% of the wood was hardwood (oak and beech) and the remainder was softwood, mainly Scots pine. Some of the beechwood was used to construct de Havilland Mosquito fighter planes. It was replanted in a program which took until 1960 to complete, with the trees mainly being Scots pine since hardwood seedlings were not available. In the 2010s, part of the wood became a green funeral site, with individual plots costing £950.