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Woodhouselee, Tower Of Fulford
Country House (Post Medieval), Tower House (Medieval)
Site Name Woodhouselee, Tower Of Fulford
Classification Country House (Post Medieval), Tower House (Medieval)
Alternative Name(s) Fulford Tower
Canmore ID 51893
Site Number NT26SW 4
NGR NT 2370 6450
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/51893
- Council Midlothian
- Parish Glencorse
- Former Region Lothian
- Former District Midlothian
- Former County Midlothian
NT26SW 4.00 2370 6450
NT26SW 4.01 237 645 Garden
NT26SW 4.02 23898 64533 Stables
NT26SW 4.03 24211 64511 Entrance Gates
NT26SW 4.04 23712 64422 Archway
NT26SW 4.05 23821 64420 Sundial
NT26SW 4.06 2370 6450 Designed landscape
(NT 2370 6450) Woodhouselee on site of Tower of Fulford (NR)
OS 6" map (1957)
Fulford Tower or Tower of Fulford (Name Book 1852) is incorporated in the modern mansion of Woodhouselee, and is oblong in plan and four storeys high, built of rubble. The basement floor is the only original portion, the upper floors being rebuilt in 1796. Fulford Tower was repaired about 1665 from the stones of Old Woodhouselee (NT26SE 25) (OSA 1795). A most elaborate lectern-type sundial from Wrightshouses, demolished 1800, stands in the garden S of the house.
RCAHMS 1929
Woodhouselee was demolished about 1967 and the site grassed over. The sundial could not be found.
Visited by OS (RD) 3 February 1970
NMRS REFERENCE
Architect: George Meikle Kemp's S wing 1843.
Demolished 1965
Plans:
Dick Peddie & McKay, Edinburgh additions and alterations
Bin 6, bag 1 Peddie & Kinnear 1873
Dick Peddie & McKay, Edinburgh additions and alterations (to house?)
Bin 6, bag 1 Kinnear & Peddie 1887
EXTERNAL REFERENCE
Scottish Record Office:
Letter from Marjory Flemyng, Lady Woodhouselee, to James Scott. She requests money to pay workmen and buy lime and nails.
1665 GD 214/555
Field Visit (20 July 1914)
Tower of Fulford, Woodhouselee.
Fulford Tower is incorporated in the modern mansion of Woodhouselee, which lies at the southern base of Woodhouselee Hill, 3/8 of a mile west-north-west of the hamlet of Easter Howgate. The tower, which is oblong on plan and four storeys in height, is built of rubble. The basement floor is the only original portion, and contains a single vaulted apartment 14 feet 2 inches square within walls 3 feet 5 inches thick. The upper floors were rebuilt in 1796.
STAINED GLASS. The dining-room window in the tower contains a rondel of stained glass, on which are blazoned the Royal Arms of Scotland impaling those of Anne of Denmark, Queen of James VI. The armorial details are given in full in the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland, xxvi (1891-2), p. 41 ff. The rondel is encircled in a decorative border of conventional Renaissance treatment inscribed at the bottom: IN MY DEFENC GOD ME DEFEND/ANNO 1600. It is 6 ½ inches in diameter and the border is 2 inches broad. The glass is greenish and of uneven texture, enriched by the application of silver stain and red and purple enamels.
CARVED FIREPLACE. In the entrance hall of the modern portion there is a 16th century Jacobean stone mantelpiece enriched with carving. The mantelpiece was removed from Wrightshouses [see NT27SW 140], a building demolished in 1800, which stood on the site lately occupied by James Gillespie's School, Edinburgh. Wrights houses belonged to the family of Napier; Alexander Napier of Wrightshouses is on record in 1547, and John Napier of the same was dead before 1682 (1).
SUNDIAL. A sundial (Fig. 57 [SC 1243002]), now standing within the gardens south of the house, was removed from the same structure. It is a dial of the lectern type and is 6 feet 3 inches in height. The dial faces are elaborate and most ingeniously contrived. The shaft is twisted and enriched by the application of ornaments-the thistle, a cherub's head and a heart. It rises from a spreading base and terminates in a circular capital with a square abacus. This dial is one of the most elaborate of its type.
ARCHITECTURAL DETAILS. Sundry fragments of architectural detail are built into an archway 100 yards south-west of the house. Some of these also seem to have been brought from Wrightshouses [NT27SW 140].
(1) The pediment of a dormer window, within which is a shield parted per pale and charged with, dexter, a bend charged with a crescent between two spur-rowels (mullets);sinister, an engrailed saltire between four roses, for Napier. Flanking the shield are the initials R.N. and M.N., and on a label below is the inscription: PATRIAE ET POSTERIS 1513. The arms and initials are those of Robert Napier of Wrightshouses and his wife, Margaret Napier, daughter of John Napier of Merchiston.
(2) A second pediment contains a shield parted per pale, and charged with, dexter, a fess checky between three bucks' heads cabossed; sinister, on a chevron a stag's head erased, between two mullets in chief and a rose in base. These are for Park of ‘Fulfordlies’ and his wife (unidentified).
(3) In a third pediment a shield bears a lion's head erased between two crescents. Below is the legend: VNTO YE RICHTIOVS THERE/ARISETH LIGHT IN DARKNES, and above the shield: POST NVBILA PHOEBVS. The motto is that of Sir WiIliam Purves of Abbeyhill.
(4) In a fourth pediment a shield bears a fess fretty beneath a chief, in base a crescent.
(5) An effigy of a seated female figure 1 foot 4 inches high: possibly a representation of the Virgin and Child.
(6) The stone immediately below is inscribed in Greek with the words, ‘To God alone the glory’.
(7) Beside (4) is a plain three-faced dial.
HISTORICAL NOTE. Sir William Purves of ‘Foulfoord’ or Woodhouselee, ‘his Majesty's solicitor’, is on record in 1667 and subsequent dates (2). He repaired Fulford Tower as a residence from the materials of old Woodhouselee (No. 101), and transferred that name to the tower (3).
RCAHMS 1929, visited 20 July 1914.
(1) Laing Charters, Nos. 492, 2803; (2) Ibid., Nos. 2621, 2639, 2652, etc. ; (3) Stat. Acct., xv, p.441.
Photographic Survey (July 1960)
Photographic survey of Woodhouselee, Midlothian, by the Scottish National Buildings Record in 1960. The house has since been demolished.
Photographic Survey (April 1964)
Photographic survey of Woodhouselee, Midlothian, by the Scottish Development Department in the Scottish National Buildings Record in 1964
