Glencorse Barracks

Glencorse Barracks
Penicuik
The Old and The New at Glencorse Barracks
Glencorse Barracks Location within Midlothian
Coordinates	55°50′43″N 3°12′12″W / 55.84528°N 3.20333°W / 55.84528; -3.20333Coordinates: 55°50′43″N 3°12′12″W / 55.84528°N 3.20333°W / 55.84528; -3.20333
Type	Barracks
Site information
Owner	Ministry of Defence
Operator	British Army
Site history
Built	1803
Built for	War Office
In use	1803-Present
Garrison information
Occupants	The Royal Highland Fusiliers, 2nd Battalion The Royal Regiment of Scotland

Glencorse Barracks are situated in Glencorse just outside the town of Penicuik in Midlothian, Scotland.

The site was originally occupied by Greenlaw House, a 17th-century mansion. The current buildings on the site were constructed in 1803, during the Napoleonic Wars, when they were first used to hold French prisoners of war in a facility then known as Greenlaw Military Prison. The only surviving building from that time is the former Prison Guardroom, which is now the Clocktower. In 1804 Greenlaw House was itself converted to accommodate prisoners of war. Nothing remains of house: however, it is thought that the cellars of the officers' mess owe their existence to this mansion.

The whole site, which had previously been leased from a private landlord, was acquired outright by the War Office in 1812. Additional buildings were erected in 1813, at a cost of £100,000, to house 6,000 prisoners and their guards. However, the Napoleonic Wars came to an end a year later and the prisoners were sent home. Most of the prisoners were crews of privateers - nearly 300 men were confined in the mansion house. Ensign Hugh Maxwell was convicted of culpable homicide for the death, in January 1807, of Charles Cottier, a prisoner in Greenlaw House. Maxwell was the commander of a guard of 36 men of the Lanarkshire Militia, who were, at the time, based in Penicuik. He was imprisoned in the Tolbooth at Canongate for 9 months.

A monument which was erected at Valleyfield in memory of those prisoners who died in captivity is now surrounded by houses in this redeveloped area of the river valley.

Although for a while it was a Military Prison, the facilities were little used between 1815 and 1875, when they were converted into a major infantry barracks at a cost of £30,000. Their creation took place as part of the Cardwell Reforms which encouraged the localisation of British military forces. The barracks became the depot for the two battalions of the 1st Regiment of Foot (Royal Scots). Following the Childers Reforms, the regiment evolved to become the Royal Scots with its depot in the barracks in 1881.