On the A701 lies Penicuik (pronounced 'Pennycook irrespective of its spelling), a town in Midlothian, Scotland with a population of around 15,700. Positioned between Edinburgh and Peebles, the settlement was developed as a planned village in 1770 by Sir James Clerk of Penicuik, coming to be a burgh in 1867. Its initial local industry were its reputable paper mills, with the last of these closing down in 2004. The town name, Penicuik, is derived from 'Pen Y Cog', meaning specifically, 'Hill of the Cuckoo' in Ancient British. The small town does have its global links, and is twinned with the town of L'îsle-sur-la-Sourge in France. The first instance of the acknowledgment of the town was in 1296. Thomas Rymer's text Foedera points to a 'Walter Edgar a person Penicok south of Edenburgh', and is exactly what the town's name evolved 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. However, in the background of the town itself, full expansion started when the Cowan family arrived around 1770, and brought the industry of their paper mill. This brought the necessity for homes for workers, resulting in general population increasing to 1,700 by 1800. Penicuik was additionally used as the site of a prison camp for soldiers from the French Napoleonic wars, but in our present day, it is currently the site of a housing development. Nevertheless, a monolith dated back to 1830 commemorates the 309 prisoners who died there during the course of the years 1811-1814. For all of your home upgrades, make sure to make use of dependable contractors in Penicuik to make certain of quality.