Our Story

To find Eskmills Venue you will first pass the fast flowing river Esk, in the pretty coastal town of Musselburgh, very near to Edinburgh, to be met by our wonderful landscaped garden, beautifully restored cobbled courtyard, and unique glass atrium entrance.

Eskmills Venue as it is today is the product of ten years’ renovation and hard work to restore its hard working industrial past into an elegant wedding and party venue.  Many of the distinctive 19th century architectural features have been retained, while the 2 acres of romantic landscaped gardens, which are seasonally planted for year-round colour, make the perfect backdrop for capturing images to treasure.

The History of Eskmills

In 1812 a brand-new machine was invented by Musselburgh man, Colonel James Paterson.  The machine was to revolutionise the making of fishing nets (an important industry for the east coast of Scotland) and eventually, later in the 19^th century, a new mill works using these machines was established on the banks of the River Esk.

At its height, the mill employed over 800 people in cotton processing and rope manufacturing, playing a major part in the local economy. The mill and factory complex gradually fell into disrepair and eventually closed, with the introduction of rival, more modern materials like nylon.  Then, in the 1990s the Victorian core of buildings and their courtyard were rescued, restored and converted into the beautiful events venue you see today.

Musselburgh – our community

Musselburgh is known as the Honest Toun, and dates back to the Roman Empire, with many historic buildings from the 18^th and 19^th century still in existence along with the well known independent school Loretto, and Queen Margaret University.  With excellent train connections and the A1 and Edinburgh City Bypass both skirting the town, Musselburgh has a thriving and lively centre, and is the biggest settlement in the county of East Lothian.

Eskmills Venue is immersed in the local community, giving back whenever we can. We host an annual complimentary Community Lunch for our elderly residents, staged on Giving Tuesday which is global day of giving something back, (normally around end of November).

Similarly, during the 2020 Covid-19 pandemic we worked alongside the Musselburgh Resilience Team with our volunteer staff to cook and deliver nutritious meals made from scratch to vulnerable residents during the strict social lockdown.

Corporate profile

We have at the core of our business our teams and their welfare, and we commit to staff members in the same way as we commit to clients, we invest in training, have our own Hospitality Induction Plan, have developed award winning software to support management of our business, are an Equal Opportunities employer, a Living Wage employer and we pride ourselves on bringing in and nurturing young talent – in fact, many of our senior team, started working with us as students (and liked us so much they stayed on).

Eskmills Venue is part of Hickory and is the Hickory home base for delivering amazing events throughout the country. Our production kitchen is in Eskmills, as are some of our senior team – we have an office for our sales and planning teams in Edinburgh city centre and a logistics team based in Tranent – so, in essence, we are a small family of integrated services and people, all working our socks off in beautiful Edinburgh and East Lothian to build successful brands and companies.

Would you like to find out more about what our historic venue can offer? Let’s talk