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The Scottish Medieval Towerhouse As Lordly Residence in the Light Of

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The Scottish Medieval Towerhouse As Lordly Residence in the Light Of Proc SocAntiq Scot, (1988)8 11 , 267-276 The Scottish medieval towerhouse as lordly residenc lighe th recenf o tn ei t excavation Christopher J Tabraham* SUMMARY Forpastthe century, architectural historians have taken lead examiningthe in castellatedour heritage and produced the models which form the basis of our present understanding. Only recently have archaeologists begun to broaden that appreciation. One area in particular where the picture may be changing medievalthe is towerhouse, which generallywe perceive free-standingas self-and contained. This short paper takes a select group of towerhouses in southern Scotland and seeks to show archaeologicalhow investigation substantiallycan alterperceptionour themof residencesas of lordship. INTRODUCTION yeae Th r 1987 marke centenare dth publicatioe th f yo firse th tf nvolumo Davif eo d MacGibbon Thomad an s Ross's five-volume epic Castellatede Th , Domesticd an Architecture of Scotland (1887- 92). No class of monument surviving from our medieval past has been better served or more intensely studied than the castle. Our fascination for ecclesiastical ruins has a longer history, but the Scottish castle has received the greater attention down the years. We owe an enormous debt to professional architects like MacGibbon and Ross, and to architectural historians of the calibre of Mackay MacKenzie (1927), Stewart Cruden (1960; reprinted 1981) and John Dunbar (1966), for picking over castellater bonee ou th f o s d heritag publishind ean majoe gth r seminal works. Until quite recently, excavation scarcely played any part at all in this learning process. Where it was undertaken t tooi ,for e kth f followin mo g walls clearind an , g away wit abandoy e hga th l nal obstructive rubble and soil to reveal yet more stone walls for architectural historians to peer at and puzzle over. But the advent of more sophisticated archaeological techniques after the Second World War, coupled with the emergence of an interest in medieval archaeology in its own right (see Hinton 1983) openeopportunities w ,ha ne p du castln si e studies increasingls i t i s a , y doin othen gi r medieval areas, particularl r burghsou n yi . e amounTh f archaeologicao t l work n medievacarrieo t ou d l site n Scotlani s s stilr i d fa l outweighed by that on monuments of a greater antiquity, but what has been done has already begun to contribute enormously to our present understanding. Archaeological excavation clearly plays the lead role at those timber castles where no masonry survives; witness Peter Yeoman's work at the Giffards' mott Castlehilt ea Strachaf lo Grampian i n (Yeoman 1984) vitaa alst s I . lo ha par plao t t ya complex castle sites where a masonry phase, or phases, may be but one development in the evolution * Historic Building Monumentsd san Brando0 2 , n Street, Edinburgh 268 SOCIETY OF ANTIQUARIES OF SCOTLAND, 1988 of the site as a whole; Gordon Ewart's work on the peninsula site of Cruggleton in the Machars of Galloway (Ewart 1985) has been the most significant such case to date. But archaeology also has an important part to play at those castles where all the principal phases are masonry and where the lead, dateo t bees ha , n architecturae taketh y nb l historian. Elsewhere in this volume is a report on an excavation which I carried out in partnership with George Goo t Smailholda m Tower prominena , t landmar Bordee th n ki r country. Prio excavao rt - tion, it was widely assumed that the residence of the Pringle laird was confined within the towerhouse, with service office skitchen- , bakehouse, brewhouse, stable groupe- c ,et d barmki e arounth n i t dni enclosure. That perceptio somewhaw no s ni t altere resulexcavatione a s th d a f to , whic broughs hha t ligho t seconta d residential unit, comprising probabl outen ya r halchamberd lan , standing alongside e towerhousth verd ean y likely contemporar previousld ha ye witW . yhit excavate Threavn do e Island Gallowae th n i , y Dee unearthed an , substantiao dtw l buildings, again contemporary witha towerhous agaid ean n interprete havins da g serve maie th residentiann a di (Gooe lus Tabrahad& m 1981). These discoveries have prompted me to look again at the Scottish towerhouse, particularly our usual understanding of it as a residence of lordship. THE MEDIEVAL TOWERHOUSE AS RESIDENCE: THE PRESENT VIEW The Scottish medieval towerhouse has for a long while now been viewed as a free-standing, largely self-contained entity, lofty and forbidding, 'closed-up and inward-looking' as Cruden so tellingly puts it (1960, 108-9). He continues: '. a simple rectangular tower achieving height but not extent is an inevitable result of conditions and requirements of impoverishment, the need for security and necessity of obtaining it cheaply. To these demands of security, economy and uncertain future a plain rectangular tower with exceedingly thick walls constructe obvioue stonf th o s l deal wa s answer als s reductioe owa th t courtyarI .e th f no d castl famila o et y dwellin littld gan e more.' veie Thith ns s i struc MacGibboy kb Rosd nan centursa y earlier (1887,1,144): mansione Th nobilitye . th f . ' so , being constantly liablattackee b o e t burnt d dan , were necessarily built of stone; while from the improverished conditions of the barons of the time, they were of the simplest form. All that was required was a stronghold sufficient to accommodate the owner's family and personal retainers proteco t d an , t them from sudden attack. These castles consis squara f to r eo oblong tower, with thick wall' . s. Not that the towerhouse is seen in complete isolation. MacGibbon and Ross again (ibid, 145-6): '. there can scarcely be a doubt that all these keeps had a courtyard connected with them, enclosed with a good wall. This court or barmkin was essential to contain the stables and other offices.' Mackay MacKenzie coine phrase dth e 'farmyard attachments' (1927,195 describo )t e these subsidi- elementsy ar servicr o , e offices, thereby emphasizing their inferior status. 'self-containede Th ' qualit towerhouse,'e th f yo incorporatin. essentiae th l gal l ingredients of the normal medieval house in a remarkably compact form . .' (Dunbar 1966, 37), is stressed throughout the published record. If there are residential units present, integral with or adj acent to the towerhouse, these are, almost without exception, seen as a secondary development, ranges erected at some later dat responsn ei upturn family'e a o eth t n i s fortunes arrangemene Th . Crichtot ta n Castle, in Lothian s frequentli , y give o illustratnt e this evolution from simple towerhous o compleet x courtyard castle (Simpson 1957) rare e.Th exceptions, lik towerhouse eth greatd ean hall unit buily tb Duke th f Albaneo t Dounya e Castle about 1400 (Pringle 1988) ,cautio o seet t mno n against this empirical evolutionary view; and the complex late 14th- and early 15th-century establishments of the TABRAHAM: THE SCOTTISH MEDIEVAL TOWERHOUSE AS LORDLY RESIDENCE 269 likes of the Douglases at Bothwell Castle, on the Clyde, and Tantallon Castle, beside the Forth, where hall-blocks are central elements in the ensemble of buildings, are seen as lordly residences of a quite different nature. But the information coming out of the ground from both Threave Castle and Smailholm Tower strongly suggests tha traditionae th t lmedievae vieth f wo l towerhous fule th l s ea extent of a lord's residential needs may be seriously flawed. TOWERHOUSE DOUGLASEE TH F SO S In orde demonstrato rt e this last point tako t wisI , verew a hno y select grou towerhousef po s belonging to one noble Scots family. Firstly, each will be examined solely in terms of its upstanding architectur havy ema t assesfunctioneo i et w sho residenca s da lordshipf eo . Thereafter wilI , l bring into focus evidence from excavation to see how this might alter our perception. towerhousee Th s tha havI t e selected wer earle builth Douglasf sr o tfo , undeniabl mose yth t significant aristocratic famil southern i y n Scotlan e latth e earld n di 14tan yh 15th centuriesn I . choosing residences pertaining to one family, I hope that I will be able to compare and contrast them more tellingly. I am conscious that my analyses can only be regarded as general and that there are factors which perforce compromise conclusions somy m f eo particularn .I awarm a ,I e tha castlee tth s have changed over the years and that it is impossible from this distance in time to analyse each castle completes init d state firs s whetwa builtt ni . Some element longeo sn r survive; others have beeo ns altered that they defy untangling. Nevertheless accepte on f i , s what follow broan si d terms, thenI think that the comparisons are, broadly-speaking, valid. three Th e towerhouse southern i l al e nsar Scotland powerbase th , Douglasese th f eo . Threave Lordshie th 622)9 n i 73 , Gallowayf p(NGX o N R Neward ,an 421294) T k (N Forese th n Ettrickf ,i to , were residences of the senior line stemming from Black Archibald, or Archibald the Grim, who died at Threav 1400n ei . Hermitag 960)6 Liddesdale49 n ,i Y eresidence (N th s ,wa Archibald'f eo s cousin, William Douglas, the first earl of that House, whose estate passed in time to the junior line, or Red Douglas earl f Angusso . Now we can reasonably assume that each of these Douglas residences catered for a broadly similar accommodation need, for each was the chief seat in its respective lordship or estate.
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