On the A701 lies Penicuik (pronounced 'Pennycook despite its spelling), a town in Midlothian, Scotland with a population of around 15,700. Situated in between Edinburgh and Peebles, the settlement was constructed as a planned village in 1770 by Sir James Clerk of Penicuik, becoming a burgh in 1867. Its initial regional industry were its reputable paper mills, with the last of these winding up in 2004. The town name, Penicuik, is derived from 'Pen Y Cog', meaning directly, 'Hill of the Cuckoo' in Ancient British. The town does have its overseas links, and is twinned with the town of L'îsle-sur-la-Sourge in France. The first occasion of the mention of the town was in 1296. Thomas Rymer's text Foedera speaks about a 'Walter Edgar a person Penicok south of Edenburgh', and is exactly what the town's name progressed from and into today's spelling. Pennycook, another step on the ladder of Penicuik's spelling evolution, appears on John Adair's map from 1862. Nevertheless, in the background of the town itself, full growth started when the Cowan family arrived around 1770, and brought the business of their paper mill. This brought the demand for houses for workers, resulting in general population increasing to 1,700 by 1800. Penicuik was also used as the site of a prison camp for soldiers from the French Napoleonic wars, but in our current day, it is currently the site of a housing development. Nevertheless, a monolith dated back to 1830 commemorates the 309 detainees who died there during the years 1811-1814. For all of your home upgrades, make certain to make use of reliable experts in Penicuik to make certain of quality.