Publication Account
Date 1985
Event ID 1016572
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Publication Account
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1016572
The well-preserved tower-house at Clackmannan stands on the crest of a ridge a short distance to the west of the medieval burgh, and it overlooks the town in much the same way as do the castles in Edinburgh and Stirling. The site first comes on record in 1365 when David II granted certain lands in the Sheriffdom of Clackmannan to Robert de Bruce, and it remained in the hands of the same family until 1772, although by date the tower itself has been abandoned in favour of a more mdoern mansion house.
As might be expected, the building shows signs of several phases of construction, evolving from a simple rectangular tower to a more complex tower-house over a period of three hundred years, and there is some evidence to suggest that the stone structure may have superseded an earlier earthwork castle. The oldest section visible is to be found in the lower half of the north side; it forms part of a rectangular tower dating to the late 14th century, and iwas presumably build soon after the grant of the land to Robert de Bruce. The following century the tower was heightened and wing adde on the south, thus converting it to a conventional L-plan tower lay on the west, in the re-entrant, but, in the 16th or 17th century, it was replaced by the present entrance on the east. This was subsequently ornamented by the find Renaissance archway that can still be seen today, and at approximately the same time, a belfry was added to the caphouseat the top of the turnpike stair. Outside the tower-house a walled forecourt was built in the 17th century, and a view in 1758 shows a ditch surrounding the tower which still survived in part as late as 1795.
At present it is not possible to enter the tower as recent subsidence has led to a partial collapse of the fabric, but this is in the process of being stabilised and made good.
Information from ‘Exploring Scotland’s Heritage: The Clyde Estuary and Central Region’, (1985).
