Photo: Penicuik House by kim traynor, CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Penicuik House is a Category A listed historic house in Midlothian, and a member of Historic Houses. Read about its history, architecture and gardens, plus how to visit and what's nearby.
About Penicuik House
Penicuik House is the stabilised shell of an 18th-century Palladian mansion near Penicuik, Midlothian, about fifteen kilometres south of Edinburgh.
The Clerk family has owned the surrounding estate since 1654 and built the house for Sir James Clerk, 3rd Baronet, on the site of an earlier building.
A fire gutted it in 1899, and it has remained a ruin ever since, now cared for within the Penicuik Designed Landscape.
The property is listed with Historic Houses, and visitors can walk the grounds and view the ruin as part of the estate's parkland.
Read more on WikipediaHistory of Penicuik House
The Clerk family acquired the Penicuik estate in 1654 and built the Palladian mansion in the 18th century for Sir James Clerk, 3rd Baronet, replacing an older house on the same site. Fire destroyed the building in 1899, after which the family moved into the former stables block, known as New Penicuik House. In 1985 Sir John Clerk, 10th Baronet, founded the Penicuik House Preservation Trust to prevent demolition of Old Penicuik House, and a major stabilisation of the ruin was completed in 2014 by G Brown Stonemasons.
Architecture of Penicuik House
Penicuik House was designed in the Palladian style and is now a stabilised ruin rather than a complete building. Both the surviving shell of Old Penicuik House and the former stables block, New Penicuik House, are listed as Category A by Historic Environment Scotland.
Worth knowing
The Clerk family's circle placed Penicuik at the heart of the Scottish Enlightenment, and the estate's Palladian landscape is regarded as among the most complete of its kind in Scotland.
Gardens & grounds at Penicuik House
The house sits within the Penicuik Designed Landscape, twelve hectares of parkland and Palladian-era planning considered one of the finest surviving examples in Scotland.
Facilities
Plan your visit to Penicuik House
Nearest station: Curriehill Rail Station (6.2 miles)
Places to visit near Penicuik House
Historic places nearby
Within 5 miles of Penicuik House there are 1 historic properties, including 1 castle.
Within 10 miles of Penicuik House there are 10 historic properties, including 3 castles, 2 historic buildings and 2 historic houses, across Historic Environment Scotland, Historic Houses and National Trust for Scotland sites.
Within 20 miles of Penicuik House there are 44 historic properties, including 12 historic houses, 8 castles and 7 historic sites, across Historic Environment Scotland, Historic Houses and National Trust for Scotland sites.
Facts
A grand Palladian house burned out in 1899, now a stabilised ruin you can walk right up to for free.
- Type
- historic house
- Location
- Midlothian, Scotland
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