Without a hint of hyperbole, on a suspiciously warm day in late summer, arriving at Penicuik House felt more like checking into a European villa than the former stable block of a Scottish manor house.
Arranged around a pretty courtyard – complete with Italian-style water fountain, Romanesque temple and a skyline-poking clocktower – what was once a humble home for horses has now been transformed into one of Scotland’s most inviting exclusive-use properties, just 30 minutes south of Edinburgh. There are 16 bedrooms and suites, each individually and impeccably designed; a posh drawing room; two lounges; a bar; a grand dining room; a cinema room; and even an enormous, fully-equipped kitchen (on top of the professional kitchen hiding in the background).
While Penicuik’s stage is now set for weddings, gatherings and parties of all manner, it was actually a series of unfortunate events that led to its current iteration. Once part of one of Scotland’s grandest estates and a destination for society occasions, the lavish neighboring ‘Old Penicuik House,’ became untenable for the Clerk family – owners of the estate since 1654 – in the late 19th century, forcing them to put it up for sale and let it to tenants in the meantime.
The house is built around an Italian-style courtyard / ©Alexander Baxter
In 1899, disaster struck: the roof caught fire and a mass rescue effort ensued. Miraculously, the painted ceilings were the only element lost, and artworks, furnishings and collectibles were saved – for a time arranged on the front lawn.
Unsellable and unlettable, Old Penicuik House fell to ruin over the next century, while the Clerk family renovated and moved into the neighboring stable block, first built in the mid 1700s. That is, until Ed Clerk took over the estate’s care. Part of the family’s 14th generation of owners, Ed – the youngest of his siblings – wasn’t expected to be its next custodian. “My parents sat the three of us down and said one of us had to take over,” he explained. With neither elder sibling interested, duty fell to Ed.
Fortunately, he had long had a vision for his family seat, and saw the untapped potential of hospitality. First was a series of small but bijou self-catering cottages, most of which opened earlier this year. His main focus, though, was the stables where, at the time, he and his parents were all living. By his own admission, Ed was self-evicted to make way for the renovation process.
After two years of meticulous hard work, the new Penicuik House finally opened in late summer 2025 – with final bits of the refurb still being completed less than 24 hours before the first guests checked in.
Family friend Charles Orchard was brought on to catapult the space into modern territory and unlike most Scottish estates, where dark tones and tartan still reign supreme, Penicuik House is a riot of color, without a stag’s head in sight. A main corridor is coated in rich butter yellow; a discreet little reading nook is painted top-to-bottom in crimson; and royal blue couches sit across from tangerine-colored armchairs.
There’s method to the madness, though. Orchard has just the right amount of restraint and subtlety is deployed sparingly – be it the muted dusky pink walls in the top suite or the refreshingly bare wooden floorboards in the two lounges.
Maybe most impressive of all in the property’s reimagining, though, is that most of those fire-salvaged antiques have found a new home, here. In the upstairs lounge, the piano and the harp are borrowed from the main house. The hundreds of portraits that line the walls are originals of the Clerk family, and a tour from Ed includes nods to distant family members. Even an original four-poster bed has been re-used, drips of lead (perfectly safe) still intact.
This care for attention to detail extends into the service and amenities and little luxuries are frequent – the best of which is the fully equipped mudroom with, when I visited at least, fresh-out-the-box Le Chameau Wellington boots and Patagonia waterproof jackets. A much-need boon in Scotland, especially when there’s some 7,500-acres of estate to explore, as well as the dramatic peaks of the Pentland Hills beyond.
The cinema room / ©Alexander Baxter
The upstairs lounge / ©Alexander Baxter
Penicuik’s dining room / ©Alexander Baxter
The boot room / ©Alexander Baxter
Walls are lined with Clerk family portraits
The burnt-out Old Penicuik House
Equally, while some elements of Penicuik feel considered to the nth degree, others will need some refining – a lack of bottled water in the rooms and just one iron for the whole house spring to mind. Wellness facilities are another place where Penicuik House has room to grow. Currently (and with fair notice), masseuses and pilates instructors can be booked to visit the property, but there’s rumour of a floating sauna being launched next year. Watch this space.
Penicuik can technically be hired as a self-catering property but should you (quite fairly) want to put the stress of feeding up to 32 guests in someone else’s hands, the team will organise for Edinburgh Catering to look after you. Huge family-style feasts cooked over an open fire are their specialty, but you can go for more refined fine dining if you prefer. The team will stick around to make some delicious post-dinner cocktails, too.
But what then of the Old Penicuik House, just a few hundred yards from its now done up younger sister? In an on-going conservation project, funded by public and charitable support, the burnt-out building has been structurally secured, to an extent where visitors can safely walk around it’s shell. There’s talk of a proper restoration to its former glory, but this feels a good few decades off. Regardless, it is noted as the largest consolidation of a ruin ever attempted in Scotland.
Around it, Ed is leading an ongoing biodiversity project, too – one that not just honors the past but secure the estate’s standing in the future. There are big goals in place: 890 acres of woodland restored to regenerative management, 1,165 acres of peatland restored and 1.6 million native trees planted. The opening of Penicuik House might be the headlines news for now, but it’s clearly but a small part of the estate’s mammoth return.
penicuikestate.com