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Arnot Tower
Tower House (Medieval)
Site Name Arnot Tower
Classification Tower House (Medieval)
Alternative Name(s) Arnot Castle
Canmore ID 30016
Site Number NO20SW 8
NGR NO 20602 01664
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/30016
- Council Perth And Kinross
- Parish Portmoak (Perth And Kinross)
- Former Region Tayside
- Former District Perth And Kinross
- Former County Kinross-shire
NO20SW 8 20602 01664
(NO 2060 0167) Arnot Tower (NR) (Ruins of).
OS 6" map (1938)
Arnot Tower, which stands beside the modern house, dates from the 16th century and has been oblong on plan, measuring externally 32 1/2 by 26 1/2 feet. It is four storeys high, the basement only being vaulted, and is built of ashlar. Two later outbuildings have been reared against the tower walls, the one on the east is fragmentary and only the western wall of the southern one remains. The present tower looks like 15th century work (MacGibbon and Ross 1889) and was probably erected on the site of an older one. It had a courtyard to the south.
D MacGibbon and T Ross 1889; RCAHMS 1933.
Generally as described and planned. The tower is situated in the NW corner of a small courtyard measuring 32.0m N-S by 23.0m transversely and there are slight traces of a building c.23.0m E-W by 6.5m transversely along the inside of the S wall of the courtyard.
Surveyed at 1:2500.
Visited by OS (RD) 13 April 1972.
Field Visit (10 June 1927)
Arnot Tower.
At the eastern limit of the parish, 1 ½ miles east of Scotlandwell, the ivy-clad ruin of Arnot Tower stands beside the modern house. The tower dates from the 16th century and has been oblong on plan, measuring externally 32 ½ by 26 ½ feet. It is four storeys high, the basement only being vaulted, and the vault, like the outer walls, being built of ashlar. The windows have chamfered margins, and those on the upper floors have had seats in the embrasures. Two later outbuildings have been reared against the tower walls; the one on the east is fragmentary, and of the southern one there remains only the western wall containing corbels for the support of the first floor.
HISTORICAL NOTE. David Arnot in the County of Fife is on Ragman Roll of 1296 (1). In the 15th century the family of that name held the lands of Arnot "in the Sheriffdom of Fife" from the King as Earl of Fife (2), but in March 1507 these lands, including "the manor or place, tower and fortalice," were incorporated in a free barony in favour of Walter Arnot, son and heir of John Arnot of that ilk (3).
RCAHMS 1933, visited 10 June 1927.
(1) Bain's Calendar of Docts., ii, p. 204. (2) Reg. Mag. Sig., s.a. 1429, No. 135. (3) Ibid., s.a., No. 3083.
