Hope was born at South Queensferry, West Lothian, Scotland, the eldest son of John Hope, 6th Earl of Hopetoun, and the former Ethelred Anne Birch-Reynardson. He was educated at Eton College and the Royal Military College, Sandhurst, where he passed out in 1879. However, he chose not to join the regular army upon graduation. He later explained "the affairs of the family estate, to which I succeeded at 13, seemed to call for my personal attention". Subsequently, he devoted his attentions to managing the more than seventeen thousand hectares (42,500 acres) of family estate located around the Firth of Forth.