Venlaw Castle
Venlaw Castle , also Smithfield Castle is a country house north of Peebles on the road to Edinburgh in the Scottish administration unit Scottish Borders . It has been used as a hotel since 1949. It has been listed as a Category B Historic Building by Historic Environment Scotland since 1971 .
history
Venlaw Castle
A fourteenth-century fortress built by Clan Hay , called Smithfield Castle , used to stand here . It was demolished in the 18th century. The present house was built on this site in 1782 by Alexander Stevenson , 2nd Sheriff of Peeblesshire . It is an excellent example of the Scottish Baronial Style and is set in 1.6 acres of gardens. The property remained in the hands of the Stevenson family until they sold it to the Grant family in 1790 . In 1798 it was sold to the Erskine family . In 1862 it became the home of Naval Admiral Sir James James Elphinstone Erskine . Then it fell to Richard Davidson , a retired tea plantation owner and in 1946 he sold the property to a Miss Walton .
Venlaw Castle Hotel
In 1948, the new owners, Alexander Cumming and his wife, Jean Brownlee , wanted to convert the house into a hotel but could not pay the "development tax" levied on people converting a private home into a business. Cumming fought successfully for the abolition of this tax; his success is mentioned in the Hansard . The Venlaw Castle Hotel opened in 1949 and remained in the family until November 1997, when it was sold to John and Shirley Sloggie , who renamed it the Castle Venlaw Hotel . In September 2007 PAG Hotels Ltd took over the hotel , but went into sequestration in July 2010 . In November 2011, a private couple bought the hotel.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Listed Building - Entry . In: Historic Scotland .
- ↑ a b c d e History of Castle Venlaw . Archived from the original on December 25, 2014. Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. Retrieved December 24, 2014.
- ↑ Private couple new owners of historic Peebles hotel . Southern Reporter. November 24, 2011. Accessed February 28, 2018.
Web links
Coordinates: 55 ° 39 ′ 32 " N , 3 ° 11 ′ 21" W