Pencaitland and Ormiston @ Urbansea

Heading south from the crossroads of the main road heading towards Saltoun, you pass the well kept New Cemetery and a quarter mile further stood the ruins of the hamlet of Spilmersford.  Carboniferous limestone was long ago burned at Spilmersford.  The deep excavations there now filled with water as well as the tumbled down kilns […]

Almost opposite the church and standing a short distance to the north of the road is the building known as Pencaitland House.  The original old Pencaitland house, a 17th century building was destroyed by fire in 1875. Only two wings of the house survived and stand about 100 metres of Pencaitland Bridge within the policies […]

It was left to the sons of the saintly Queen Margaret to reconstruct the organisation of the Church, and David I (1124-1153) was particularly active in this work. However, it was his brother and predecessor, Alexander I (reigned 1107-1124) who put English or Norman bishops into the Celtic Cathedral of St. Andrews. Before the Scottish […]

Coal mining had provided a new wealth to many people although not necessarily to those that had to extract the black gold.  Coal mining in and around Pencaitland had been carried out for a long time, even before the industrial revolution of the 1800’s. A man named “Samuel Johnstoun, of Elphingston between the years 1622-25, […]

In 1617, Adam Johnestoun and Andro Huntair being “justices of the peace” in the parrochine of Pencaitland were made responsible for carts and horses being in readiness at the times and places to be appointed for the conveyance of His Majesty’s luggage.  They must accept their offices under pain of rebellion. On one occasion the […]

There are at least two ancient dovecotes in Pencaitland parish, one on the Penkaet (Fountainhall) estate, and the other situated in a grass park near the Trevelyan Hall.  The structure of the former belongs to the usual type crow-stepped lateral walls and a steep pitched roof, though the roof is now gone.  There are 180 […]

Heading eastward from the junction of the main A68 Dalkeith to Jedburgh road turning leftwards along the A6093 at the war memorial, before too long the countryside opens up, past the farmlands of the West Byres, to reveal the lands of Ormiston. By car, instead of turning down into Ormiston, constrained by convenience, one is […]

In 1635, certain lands in Easter Pencaitland were confirmed by King James to James Livingston (Jacobo Levingstoun). In 1636, certain lands were granted to Sir James McGill, and in the same year lands of “Eister et Wester Tempilhall” are granted to John Pringle, W.S. (M. Joanni Pringill). In 1638, a large grant of lands is […]