Woodhouse Tower

NY 2507 7149 NY27SE 5

The imposing remains of this late 16th-century tower-house occupy a commanding position on the escarpment to the E of the Kirtle Water and in sight of Robgill Tower (NY27SW 7). The surviving fragment comprises the NE wall (to wall-head height) and parts of the adjoining NW and SE walls, the latter, together with the greater part of the NE wall, having been restored in 1877. Fragmentary turf-covered foundations of the corresponding SW wall indicate that the tower was rectangular on plan, measuring 9.6m from NW to SE by 7m transversely over wall up to 1.7m thick at ground-floor level. The tower originally stood to a height of three storeys and an attic.

The entrance was probably at the W end of the SW wall, where there is a surviving jamb, checked internally and wrought with a quirked roll-and-hollow moulding and fact, stopped with a splay. A newel-stair, accommodated in a stair-well in the E angle of the tower, may have been contrived as part of the 1877 restoration to allow access to the wall-head. The stair-treads have been almost entirely removed, only the stubs remaining. Two slit-windows in the SE wall, lighting the stair, are square-arrised and clearly date from the restoration. The wall-head carries a two-strand corbel table with a rolled sill and cyma-recta moulded cornice, apparently for a continuous parapet of slight projection. The NW wall terminates on the N with a plain-coped gable for a garret.

The basement was vaulted, although only a portion of the springing in the NE wall remains, providing the clearest indication of the extent of the 1877 restoration; it was lit by a wide-mouthed horizontal gunloop set central to each wall. A vertical window with a stepped sill is set beneath the projected soffit of the vault and may indicate the former presence of an entresol, or a wish to provide additional light.

At first-floor level, in the NW wall, there is the ingo, with aumbry (salt-box) and roll-moulded jamb, for the hall fireplace, and, beside it, an aumbry checked for a wooden frame and door. In a corresponding position in the NE wall, there is a window embrasure with segmental lead and ashlar rear-arch, cut-back window seats, and an aumbry in the ingo. The window itself, originally barred and checked for a fixed frame, has a stout roll-moulded arris. Two corbels in the NE wall, together with a projecting jamb for a fireplace in the NW wall, indicate the position of the joisted timber floor at second-floor level. On this floor, the only surviving features are an aumbry in the NW wall, and a window embrasure, with a semental head, in the NE wall. Externally, this window, too, has a stout edge roll. A solitary corbel towards the N end of the NE wall indicates the floor-level of the garret; the fireplace in the NW wall has a plain ashlar jamb.

On the WSW side of the tower, and extending along the edge of the escarpment, there are the turf-covered footings of the barmkin wall. This returned some 15m to the SW of the tower, being here represented by a turf-covered stony bank spread up to 2.5m thick and 0.6m high. A shallow rectangular depression within the angle of the barmkin may indicate the presence of an outbuilding measuring about 9.6m by 6m overall.

Visited by RCAHMS (IMS), 14 October 1993.

Listed as tower.

RCAHMS 1997.