Prestige property: prime address more than sum of its parts

Craigesk House in Midlothian is a beautiful C-listed house, dating from 1820 and sitting on an elevated site with dramatic views over the River South Esk and the Dalhousie Viaduct, close to Eskbank. It was built originally for the owner of a local paper mill.

But its historical connections go much further back, and the story of the house – which has probably only ever been owned by three families – is a fascinating one.

A catastrophic fire ripped through Craigesk on the night of 10 December, 1929, shortly after electricity had been installed for the first time, according to current owners Charles and Jacqueline Court-Brown.

Jacqueline says: “We understand that it then lay derelict till it was sold to the next owners, in 1932, who largely rebuilt it.”

In doing so, much of the interiors have come from other great houses. Charles explains: “Our drawing room has wood panelling that might be 350 years old, as it was taken from Douglas Castle, known as the Castle of the Black Douglas in Lanarkshire, home to the Douglas-Humes, which was demolished in 1938.”

In the 1960s, Craigesk was divided by its then owners into three flats, and the building retained this layout until it was sold, as a whole, to Charles and Jacqueline in September 1985.