Prestonfield House is a
boutique hotel
Boutique hotels are small inventory, design driven, unique hotels with their own character, personality and storytelling at the heart of their concept. Positioning is secondary for these hotels as they focus on authenticity and personalization ...
in
Prestonfield,
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
,
Scotland
Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...
.
Prestonfield House was originally
built in 1687 by
architect
An architect is a person who plans, designs and oversees the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to provide services in connection with the design of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the buildings that h ...
Sir William Bruce
Sir William Bruce of Kinross, 1st Baronet (c. 1630 – 1 January 1710), was a Scottish gentleman-architect, "the effective founder of classical architecture in Scotland," as Howard Colvin observes.Colvin, p.172–176 As a key figure in introduc ...
,
and was once considered a wealthy rural estate (land), estate, but in recent decades has come to serve as a hotel.
Although it falls on the small side as an establishment, having only 23 rooms, Prestonfield House is well-known to hotel and hospitality critics.
The hotel is at the foot of Arthur's Seat. The hotel owns a large Railway roundhouse, roundhouse, previously used for keeping horses. The stables were repurposed and now host events, including the "Taste of Scotland Festival".
History
Originally known as Priestfield, the site was once a wealthy monastery, founded in 1150 by Henry, Earl of Northumbria.
Circa 1510, Walter Chepman built Priestfield House on the site. Thomas Hamilton, Lord Priestfield was clearly living in the house in 1607, when he adopted Prestonfield as his style (form of address) , style as a Senator of the College of Justice.
James Dick of Prestonfield, James Dick bought the house in 1671. It burned down during an Anti-Catholicism, anti-Catholic riot in 1681. Dick employed
Sir William Bruce
Sir William Bruce of Kinross, 1st Baronet (c. 1630 – 1 January 1710), was a Scottish gentleman-architect, "the effective founder of classical architecture in Scotland," as Howard Colvin observes.Colvin, p.172–176 As a key figure in introduc ...
to design a replacement building, which was then renamed Prestonfield, distancing it from its Catholic Church in Scotland , Catholic connections.
The house remained the home of the Dick baronets for many centuries.
In 1751 the house was inherited by Sir Alexander Dick, 3rd Baronet, Sir Alexander Dick from his elder brother William and his wife Anne Dick. The Dick family continued to modify and improve the estate, adding paintings, a new stairs , staircase with reception rooms and a porte-cochère. Most notably, the stable house was built in the 19th century, as designed by James Gillespie Graham. In the late 19th century it was the home of Sir William Hanmer Dick-Cunyngham, 8th Baronet of Prestonfield and Lambrughton. His son, Lieutenant Colonel William Dick-Cunyngham, William Henry Dick-Cunyngham VC (16 June 1851 – 6 January 1900) was a Scottish recipient of the Victoria Cross. He was in command of the 2nd Battalion Gordon Highlanders, in the Second Boer War where he was mortally wounded in action at the siege of Ladysmith.
The estate was converted for use as a hotel in the 1960s and, in 2003, the hotel was bought by restaurateur James Thomson.
In 2004 Mike Watson, Baron Watson of Invergowrie was charged and later convicted of Wilful fire raising after setting fire to a set of curtains in the hotel following a night of heavy drinking in ''The Stables'' at The Scottish Politician of the Year party.
References
External links
Official website
Hotels in Edinburgh
Listed hotels in Scotland
Country houses in Edinburgh
Category A listed buildings in Edinburgh
Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes
Restaurants in Scotland
1687 establishments in Scotland
Buildings and structures completed in 1687
Hotels established in the 1960s
{{Edinburgh-stub