During the Jacobite rising of 1745, Bonnie Prince Charlie's cavalry camped in the park, before the Battle of Prestonpans.

[2] In 1760, Lord Abercorn commissioned Sir William Chambers (1723–1796) to design a modest new house, which was constructed between 1763 and 1768.

The total cost of the house and pleasure grounds, laid out by Robert Robinson in the style of Capability Brown, was around £30,000.

Its tenants were aristocratic including Francis Rawdon-Hastings, 1st Marquess of Hastings who rented the property for many years and held an infamous garden fete in June 1805 inviting 300 of the Scottish nobility.

[3] The Benhar Coal Mining Company bought a large part of the 1,500-acre (610 ha) estate in the 1880s, and in 1894 Duddingston Golf Club was developed in the grounds.