[MR] Scottish Tower Houses and English Peel Towers
Garth Groff via Atlantia
atlantia at seahorse.atlantia.sca.org
Fri Oct 28 02:25:46 PDT 2016
Noble Friends, Especially Fellow Scots,
To conclude my discussions on Scottish vernacular architecture, today I
will chat briefly about tower houses and similar English peel towers.
The Scottish tower house was a castle in miniature, often built and
lived in by minor lairds or chiefs of small clans. Although they are
often identified with the border reivers of the 1500s, and many were
built in the border counties of southern Scotland, some actually predate
this era and are found throughout the Lowlands, with a few in the
Highlands as well.
In their simplest form, tower houses were rectangular buildings built
three or four stories high, usually over a partly excavated cellar
level. More complicated towers, or additions to existing towers,
expanded the footprints to "L", "Z", "U" and even "H" shapes. The angles
allowed doors to be protected by covering fire. Sometimes tower houses
also had small round corner towers, or turrets extending out from the
corners on upper floors, which housed stairways. Tower houses built by
the notoriously left-handed Kerr family (usually pronounced "Carr") had
stairs that wound in the opposite direction from normal, to give their
southpaw defenders an advantage over right-handed attackers. Some towers
had battlements at the roof level, and most had the crow-step end gables
so typical of Scottish castles. One of the best surviving examples is
the delightful Claypotts Castle in Dundee, built on the "Z" plan:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Claypotts_Castle .
Smailholm Tower near Kelso is typical of the border towers. It was held
by the Pringles, one of the smaller families of border reivers:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smailholm_Tower .
Kilmahew Castle, family seat of the Napiers for hundreds of years, is a
small tower house in Dumbartonshire on the north bank of the Clyde. It
is usually described as 15th century, though it was heavily modified in
the late 19th century, possibly as a folly or picturesque ruin. A castle
is thought to have stood on this site from the late 1200s, when the land
was granted to John le Nae Peer by the Earl of Lennox:
http://www.scottishcastlesassociation.com/about-us/associated-castles/kilmahew-castle.htm
. Two other former Napier castles, Merchiston Tower and Culcreuch
Castle, are or were tower houses: http://www.clannapier.org/naphomes.htm .
Surrounding many of these small castles was a courtyard inside what was
known as a barmkin wall. This wall, perhaps 12-15 feet high, offered
little protection against a determined attack in force or by stealth,
though it might channel attackers through its small gate into a field of
fire. The barmkin was really more to keep animals from straying and keep
out casual thieves. Small auxiliary buildings such as forges, stables
and storehouses were sometimes built against this wall. The castle
owner's relatives, supporters and tenants would have lived in small
houses outside the walls and could retreat to the tower house in times
of danger.
Many tower houses were protected by gun loops at the ground level for
handguns or cannon. Some of the cannons were actually of rolled leather:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leather_cannon . While interesting, these
leather guns post-date our SCA period. (Darn!) Some towers, and also
full-sized castles, had "artistic" faux gun loops added during
post-period renovations.
Wikipedia offers a page on tower houses, but its coverage extends to
similar fortified dwellings in many countries:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tower_house . The page includes an
excellent photo of Hallbar Castle in South Lanarkshire, a typical
Scottish tower house.
A peel tower (or "pele" before spelling was standardized) was the
English answer to the Scottish tower house. These were erected mainly in
the three northern English counties which faced the border with
Scotland. Some were rather substantial structures, approaching the size
of a modest castle, but others were just small towers of several
stories. Many peel towers were constructed by, or on the orders of, the
English Crown to be used as watch towers with warning beacons against
Scottish attacks. Some were also the homes of local lords and their
families: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peel_tower .
St. Andrew's Church in Corbridge, Northumberland, has a rare "vicar's
pele" tower, in essence a fortified vicarage:
http://www.discoverchristianengland.org.uk/profile.php?id=1915 (one
photo will flash by in the slide show).
Yours Aye,
Lord Mungo Napier, That Crazy Scot
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