Pricing Change
New pricing for orders of material from this site will come into place shortly. Charges for supply of digital images, digitisation on demand, prints and licensing will be altered.
Field Visit
Date 15 May 1990
Event ID 1155726
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1155726
NT 1016 0537 NT10NW 4
The roofless ruin of this late 16th- or early 17th-century tower-house consists of a main block three stories and an attic in height which was converted to the L-plan in the 17th century by the addition of a wing. The tower (8.1m from W to E by 6.5m transversely over walls about 1m thick) is constructed of lime-mortared random rubble with sandstone dressings. Window margins are either bullnosed or have chamfered arrises (those in the wing are exclusively the latter). The roof was originally thatched but latterly was slated with eaves finishing in plain copes. The entrance-doorway was probably at the E end of the S wall and opened to an unvaulted basement and newel-stair accommodated in the SE angle of the main block and rising its full height. The first floor, divided into a hall and chamber, had gable fireplaces; that on the W was subsequently infilled (as part of a wider remodelling of the gable-wall, its voussoirs remain) along with an adjacent window on its S side. The fireplace in the E wall was lit by a slit-window in its rear wall and a splayed opening in the N jamb may indicate the presence of another. This arrangement is suggestive of an ingleneuk. There is an aumbry at the W end of the S and N wall respectively. The third floor, divided into two compartments, also had gable fireplaces and windows, and may originally have been open to the roof. Slit windows, however, suggest at some date the provision of an attic floor. A door at the S end of the W wall, at third-floor level, gave access to a corbelled timber parapet; only the corbelling remains. The door was subsequently blocked and a window contrived in the inserted masonry. It too was later blocked externally. The 17th-century wing contained a scale-and-plait staircase rising from ground to first-floor levels with additional accommodation on the floors above. To allow for this, the original newel-stair was removed beneath first-floor level. A slit-window at ground level in the wing probably lit a chamber beneath the stair. Peripheral to the tower there are traces of an enclosure and, on the SE, what may be an outbuilding. In 1610 the estate was the property of Robert Frenchie.
Visited by RCAHMS (IMS), 15 May 1990.
(D MacGibbon and T Ross 1889-92).
Frenchland Tower. Listed as tower.
RCAHMS 1997.
