Penicuik Estate

he story of Penicuik Estate begins in 1654 when John Clerk, an ambitious merchant from Montrose who made his fortune importing silk stockings, medieval manuscripts, and mousetraps from France—along with what may have been Scotland’s first Rembrandt—purchased the Barony of Penicuik to “give over all Trade, and become a Country Gentleman.” Each generation left its mark, but two figures proved especially influential. Sir John Clerk, 2nd Baronet (1676-1755), was a phenomenon of the Scottish Enlightenment: judge, politician, Grand Tourist, antiquarian, and amateur architect who is credited with introducing the Palladian style to Scotland and became the first person in Scotland to improve land by planting trees, personally planting an astonishing 600,000 trees and creating the Designed Landscape now recognized as being of “outstanding value as a work of art.” His son Sir James Clerk, 3rd Baronet, enhanced the estate further by building Old Penicuik House in 1761, one of Scotland’s earliest and finest Palladian mansions, and the magnificent stable block that would become today’s Penicuik House. When fire devastated Old Penicuik House in 1899, the family converted the stable block into their residence, ingeniously incorporating salvaged architecture, creating the striking building that stands today. In 1985, Sir John Clerk, 10th Baronet, established the Penicuik House Preservation Trust to save Old Penicuik House from demolition. Now Ed Clerk, youngest son of the current baronet and 12th generation, has left his career in property fund management to steer Penicuik into its next chapter: a regenerative estate with a 50-year vision connecting people to nature while protecting cultural heritage—continuing the family tradition of planting over 3 million trees across the centuries.