Archaeology Notes

Event ID 732174

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/732174

NY17SE 2 15496 72246

(NY 1549 7224) Repentance Tower (NR)

OS 1:10000 map (1973).

For Hoddom Castle and associated buildings, see NY17SE 1.00.

For (associated) Trailtrow burial-ground (NY 1550 7223), see NY17SE 12.

Repentance Tower was built, primarily as a watchtower, in the mid-16th century by John Maxwell, Lord Herries. It bears signs of later repairs. It is almost square on plan, well built of coursed rubble, and rises through three main storeys to a parapet and walk, above which is a stone-slabbed roof, surmounted by a stone beacon for the watch-fire. The walls are provided with very small windows, and with gunloops and shot-holes.

The word 'Repentance' carved over the lintel is connected with the building of the tower after the demolition of Trailtrow Chapel (NY17SE 12) which stood at the site.

RCAHMS 1920, visited 1914; N Tranter 1965; J Dunbar 1966

Repentance Tower is as described, planned, and illustrated by the previous authorities.

Visited by OS (RD) 23 October 1967.

On a hill commanding extensive southward views near Hoddom Castle (NY17SE 1.00) is a small tower built in the 1560s by John Maxwell, Lord Herries, as a lookout, signalling post and commemmorative folly. He perhaps sought forgiveness for past misdeeds, hence the word Repentance over the doorway leading into the middle of three dark storeys without fireplaces or latrines. From the doorway, wooden stairs within the rooms lead up to the third storey and the wall-walk with a plain parapet around a roof in the form of a vault covered with flagstones making the tower virtually fireproof. Perched on the top is a stance for a beacon fire. The tower was never permanently lived in.

M Salter 1993.