Field Visit

Date 29 June 1928

Event ID 1099429

Category Recording

Type Field Visit

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1099429

RCAHMS County Inventory: Fife, Kinross and Clackmannan

Sauchie Tower.

The tower stands on the right bank of the River Devon, three-quarters of a mile north of New Sauchie. It is a compactly planned building, virtually unaltered and complete. In detail and construction it closely resembles Rosyth Castle and the wing of Clackmannan Tower, and is obviously of the same period. Originally it has been enclosed by a barmkin, the remaining part of which, lying to the west of the tower, has been embodied in the 17th-century house which superseded the tower.

Almost square on plan, the tower measures 37 feet 10 inches by 33 feet 10 inches externally and contains four main storeys beneath the wall-head. The masonry is unusually good ashlar work, built in courses 7 ½ to 12 inches in height and pinned with oyster shells; in places the courses are broken by rebating and insetting. Above the larger windows are rudimentary relieving arches. The arrises are chamfered at the voids. The entrance, an archway heavily chamfered and fitted for outer and inner doors, is in the west wall at ground level. The wallhead is surmounted by a plain parapet, still complete in places, borne on separate corbels, each of two members. At each angle is a round supported on a triple-membered corbel, the lowest member of which is at the same level as the lowest member of the main corbel-course. Beside the north-eastern round there has been a latrine on the parapet-walk. A hexagonal cap-house, terminating in a pyramidal spire, emerges above the north-western round to cover the staircase.

The entrance opens in a mural lobby, on one side of which is a porter's chamber, while on the other is the stair. The basement contains a large store-house and a vaulted mural chamber, the latter within the heavy west wall. The storehouse is vaulted and beneath the vault there has been an entresol floor entered from the staircase. It is lit from two narrow windows on the east and has a recess in the south wall, possibly containing a well. The entresol has been lit on the south by a window, now closed up, and on the east by another window still open but incomplete. The south window has had seats on each jamb, and there seems to have been a large recess on its east side. Between the entresol and first-floor levels, along mural chamber occupies the west wall. It has two lockers to the east and is lit from the west by two windows, only one of which is original. At the inner end there has been a garderobe, subsequently closed by the insertion of an oven when the chamber became the bakehouse.

The first or Hall floor has been screened from the entrance by a partition of timber set across the north-western corner. The ceiling has been borne on a continuous corbel-course on each side wall. On the north are a garderobe and a stone wash-basin with ogival head. The fireplace, with jambs elaborately moulded and terminating in bell-shaped capitals, lies in the east wall, the bases being buried beneath an accumulation of soil; the lintel is a large slab, with a span of 8t feet, and is surmounted by a hood-moulding or cornice. To east and south are small windows with seats and lockers in the jambs, and there is another but larger window to the west (SC 1167954). It also has seats. The opening shows the remains of a grille. On the southern side of the embrasure is a vaulted mural chamber having a service hatch towards the Hall and a window to the west.

At an intermediate level above the Hall floor the north wall contains a garderobe entered off the staircase.

The second-floor chamber is wider than the Hall, for there are no mural chambers on the west side, and the inner wall there is accordingly set back. The two eastern corners contain angled mural chambers, the northern one of which has been a garderobe, while another garderobe lies at the west end of the south wall. The fireplace has a corbelled lintel, like a fireplace on the second floor 'of Clackmannan Tower. The windows look north, east, and west, and are provided with seats, and the northern window has a basin or sink in the breast.

The third floor is of the same size as the room beneath it, but the upper part of the side walls oversails on shallow separate corbels to give more room for the parapet-walk above. The only details left at this level are a fireplace, a locker, and a built-up window, all set in the south wall. Above the chamber there has been a loft.

ARMORIAL PANELs. - In Alloa Museum are preserved two armorial panels from the tower, though their position there cannot now be traced.

HISTORICAL NOTE. - Sir James Shaw of Greenock married the co-heiress of Sauchie, Mary de Annand, grand-daughter of Sir David de Annand of Sauchie, who flourished about 1335 (1). James Shaw of Sauchie is witness to a charter of 9 February 1468-9 (2). He was "Comptroller to the King" (3).

RCAHMS 1933, visited 29 June 1928.

(1) Scottish Antiquary, x, p. 55. (2) Reg. Mag.Sig., s.a., No. 981. (3) Scottish Antiquary, x, p.58.