In 1882-4, Frances Groome's Ordnance Gazetteer of Scotland described Woodhouselee like this:
Woodhouselee, a mansion in Glencorse parish, Edinburghshire, 6 ½ miles S of Edinburgh and 4 N of Penicuik. Romantically seated on the eastern slope of the Pentland Hills, it is an irregular pile of different dates, and partly occupies the site of the 14th-century fortalice of Fulford or Foulfourde, at whose demolition in 1755 only a stone vaulted room was suffered to remain as the lower story of part of the new building. ...
Its square corner tower was built in 1796, and its S wing in 1843, the latter from plans by Kemp, the architect of the Scott Monument at Edinburgh. There is a good collection of family portraits and other paintings, and the grounds contain some fine old trees. The estate was purchased in 1748 by William Tytler, W.S. (17l1-92), -Queen Mary's vindicator, and passed to his son, Alexander Fraser-Tytler, Lord Woodhouselee (1747-1813), author of Elements of History, etc., and father of the Scottish historian, Patrick Fraser-Tytler (17911849). The present proprietor, James Stuart FraserTytler, Esq. (b. 1820; suc. 1862), holds 556 acres in the shire, valued at £955 per annum. Old Woodhouselee the ` haunted Woodhouselee ' of Scott's Grey Brother stood at the SE verge of the parish, on the North Esk's left bank, near Auchindinny. It belonged to the wife of James Hamilton or `Bothwellhaugh,' but, according to tradition, was forfeited to enrich a greedy minion of the Regent Murray, who drove her forth on a winter's night, with her new-born babe, to die on the bleak hillside. Hence Bothwellhaugh's murder of Murray at Linlithgow (1570) has been popularly regarded as a deed of retribution; but Dr Hill Burton has shown that the so-called `victim of the Pentland Hills' obtained restitution of Woodhouselee as late as 1609. A considerable portion of the present mansion was built with the stones of Old Woodhouselee.—Ord. Sur., sh. 32, 1857. See Jn. Small's Castles and Mansions of the Lothians (Edinb. 1883).
Woodhouselee through time
Woodhouselee is now part of Midlothian district. Click here for graphs and data of how Midlothian has changed over two centuries. For statistics about Woodhouselee itself, go to Units and Statistics.
GB Historical GIS / University of Portsmouth, History of Woodhouselee in Midlothian | Map and description, A Vision of Britain through Time.
URL: https://www.visionofbritain.org.uk/place/21923
Date accessed: 27th April 2024
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