“We are absolutely devastated by this news. Mavisbank was runner up in the BBC’s Restoration programme in 2003, but failed to secure any funding. We put in a Lottery bid in 2013 which was turned down, and we were asked to put in another bid. To fail to secure funding again for this wonderful building and it’s designed landscape is frankly shocking. This latest project bid by Historic Environment Scotland and the Landmark Trust would have saved Scotland’s most important small country house and it’s wonderful grounds for the future, and would have secured much needed investment and jobs for Midlothian”

 

This latest pioneering bid was submitted by Historic Environment Scotland and the Landmark Trust. It would have created a sustainable future for Mavisbank house by creating self catering accommodation enabling thousands of people to stay for holidays or visit. One of the pavilions would have been developed as a skill centre and the other as a community wing. A community greenspace would have been created in the 70 acre grounds, and the designed landscape restored with its wonderful biodiversity respected. The public would have had access to what has been a hidden landscape on the the edge of Edinburgh.