Carlowrie Castle hosts board meetings, product launches, gala dinners and weddings, from 25 guests in the castle rooms to 300 seated in its marquee, which extends to 500 for dinner and 1,000 for drinks. Up to 40 guests can stay overnight in 21 bedrooms. The castle stands in 32 acres of private grounds at Kirkliston, west of Edinburgh and close to the city's airport.
Seminars and company events
The estate takes board meetings, quiet working sessions, client entertaining, staff incentives, think tanks, product launches and charity events. Small groups use the Marble Suite and the Piano Room, which take up to 25 guests. The Orangery suits larger meetings and receptions, with floor-to-ceiling windows that keep it in daylight and open onto the gardens. For a launch or an awards dinner, the marquee seats 300 or holds 500 standing. The team plans activities around the program and brings in outside specialists when an event needs them. Christmas parties and Hogmanay celebrations are also on the calendar.
Weddings and receptions
A wedding comes with exclusive use of the whole estate. Couples can seat up to 275 guests for dinner and welcome 450 for the evening reception, moving between the castle rooms, the Orangery, the marquee and the walled garden. Grazia magazine included Carlowrie in a list of eight wedding venues around the world.
Rooms and capacities
The Marble Suite and the Piano Room are the castle's smaller reception rooms, for up to 25 guests. The Orangery has no published capacity. The marquee has glass walls from floor to ceiling, a marble-topped bar, crystal chandeliers, LED lighting in selectable colors and its own restrooms. In its standard form it seats 300 or holds 500 for drinks; extended, it seats 500 and holds 1,000.
Accommodation
Twenty-one bedrooms in three buildings sleep up to 40 guests, and every room looks over the grounds. The castle includes The Isobel, a private suite of 115 square meters with two double bedrooms, two bathrooms and a living and dining room. The Gate Lodge, a short walk away, has five bedrooms. The Stables, the latest conversion, stands in the walled garden with six en-suite bedrooms and one suite with its own sitting room. Larger groups can book hotels nearby.
Catering
Executive chef David Millar, named Scottish Chef of the Year 2025 and a contestant on Great British Menu, leads the kitchen. He trained in Michelin-starred restaurants, including Alain Ducasse at the Hôtel de Paris in Monaco, and represented Scotland at the Culinary Olympics in Stuttgart. Menus run from canapés to wedding banquets and private fine dining, with beef from the Buccleuch Estate, fish from Scottish coastal fishmongers and produce grown on the estate in two historic Mackenzie and Moncur glasshouses.
History and setting
Thomas Hutchison, an Edinburgh wine merchant and Provost of Leith, commissioned the present castle from architect David Rhind in 1852. His family lived there from 1854 to 1982. The best known of them, Isobel Wylie Hutchison (1889 to 1982), was a botanist, poet and Arctic traveler who crossed Iceland and Greenland alone and filmed some of the earliest documentary footage of those regions. The Marshall family bought the house in 1982. Andrew Marshall took it over in 2012, refurbished it and opened it as an event venue in 2014.
Getting there
The address is Boathouse Bridge Road, Kirkliston, EH29 9ES. Edinburgh Airport is a short drive away, which helps when delegates fly in, and Edinburgh city center is about 30 minutes by road.
