Listed Building

The only legal part of the listing under the Planning (Listing Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997 is the address/name of site. Addresses and building names may have changed since the date of listing – see 'About Listed Buildings' below for more information. The further details below the 'Address/Name of Site' are provided for information purposes only.

Address/Name of Site

BUCKHOLM TOWERLB19716

Status: Removed

Documents

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Summary

Category
A
Date Added
16/03/1971
Supplementary Information Updated
12/10/1999
Date Removed:
28/10/2015
Local Authority
Scottish Borders
Planning Authority
Scottish Borders
Parish
Melrose
NGR
NT 48280 37908
Coordinates
348280, 637908

Removal Reason

Dual designation

Description

Probably 1582 with later additions. 3-storey and attic, rectangular plan tower-house overlooking the Gala Water. Largely complete to wallhead with staircase tower projecting at NE angle and later 18th century 2-storey addition to S flank. Remains of rectangular barmkin wall with round-arched gateway with edge-roll and hood-mould adjoins to SE.

Tower: whinstone rubble with whinstone quoins and freestone dressings to doors and windows with various moulded surrounds, one with a fleur-de-lys motif. Oval gunloop to N wall. Flat skews to wallhead. Doorway to E wall at 1st floor level. Vaulted cellar room to ground entered by door to S.

18th century S wing addition: entrance to W elevation; offset mullioned window above right; further windows above and to right of entrance. Linteled fire place with evidence of moulded capitals at upper level.

Statement of Special Interest

SCHEDULED MONUMENT. A fine example of a 16th century tower house survival, sited prominently on high ground on the N bank of Gala Water. Buckholm Tower retains a significant proportion of its early fabric with projecting stairtower, courtyard and gateway, and 18th century wing, all featuring elements of the early carved stone detailing.

Unusually for a tower of this date, Buckholm has two entrances. The ground floor entrance, situated in the re-entrant angle of the wing, leads directly to the vaulted cellar which does not communicate with the upper floors. The 2nd entrance doorway to the upper levels of the tower is located in the E wall and would have been reached by a bridge or arched forestair from the rectangular barmkin. The surviving S wall of the barmkin contains a fine semi-circular arched gateway, above which would have run a wallwalk carried on slab corbels. Some evidence of the E barmkin ranges remain.

The variety of mouldings to windows, including rounded arrises or pilastered detail, can also be seen at neighbouring towers of Hillslap and Aikwood (see separate listings). It shares a number of parallels with Hillslap of 1585 including the unusual absence of freestone quoins despite the use of sandstone dressings elsewhere, and the partitioned barrel-vaulted store-room to ground, suggesting the hand of the same mason in both buildings.

Understood to have been built by John Pringle of Buckholm. A Pringle family coat of Arms dated 1582, formely located above the main 1st floor entrance of Buckholm Tower, has been removed to Torwoodlee House (see separate listing). The gunloop to the N wall appears to be the principal surviving evidence of the towers former defensive capacity.

Remains of single-story structures to the N and E of the tower probably were a range of associated byre and steading buildings known as 'Old Buckholm'. In 1956 the RCAHMS Inventory notes that the tower had ' only recently become ruinous'.

Change of category from B to A (12 October 1999). Scheduled (16 January 2000). List description updated at resurvey (2010).

References

Bibliography

D MacGibbon and T Ross, The Castellated and Domestic Architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth Centuries, Vol III (1887-92) p551-2. Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland, Inventory of Roxburghshire: with the fourteenth report of the Commission (1956) pp 294-5 and fig.411. Nigel Tranter, The Fortified House in Scotland Vol.1 (1962-70) pp130-1. Charles Strang, RIAS ' Borders and Berwick (1994) p 195. K Cruft, J Dunbar and R Fawcett, The Buildings of Scotland: Borders (2006) p143.

About Listed Buildings

Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designating sites and places at the national level. These designations are Scheduled monuments, Listed buildings, Inventory of gardens and designed landscapes and Inventory of historic battlefields.

We make recommendations to the Scottish Government about historic marine protected areas, and the Scottish Ministers decide whether to designate.

Listing is the process that identifies, designates and provides statutory protection for buildings of special architectural or historic interest as set out in the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) (Scotland) Act 1997.

We list buildings which are found to be of special architectural or historic interest using the selection guidance published in Designation Policy and Selection Guidance (2019)

Listed building records provide an indication of the special architectural or historic interest of the listed building which has been identified by its statutory address. The description and additional information provided are supplementary and have no legal weight.

These records are not definitive historical accounts or a complete description of the building(s). If part of a building is not described it does not mean it is not listed. The format of the listed building record has changed over time. Earlier records may be brief and some information will not have been recorded.

The legal part of the listing is the address/name of site which is known as the statutory address. Other than the name or address of a listed building, further details are provided for information purposes only. Historic Environment Scotland does not accept any liability for any loss or damage suffered as a consequence of inaccuracies in the information provided. Addresses and building names may have changed since the date of listing. Even if a number or name is missing from a listing address it will still be listed. Listing covers both the exterior and the interior and any object or structure fixed to the building. Listing also applies to buildings or structures not physically attached but which are part of the curtilage (or land) of the listed building as long as they were erected before 1 July 1948.

While Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designating listed buildings, the planning authority is responsible for determining what is covered by the listing, including what is listed through curtilage. However, for listed buildings designated or for listings amended from 1 October 2015, legal exclusions to the listing may apply.

If part of a building is not listed, it will say that it is excluded in the statutory address and in the statement of special interest in the listed building record. The statement will use the word 'excluding' and quote the relevant section of the 1997 Act. Some earlier listed building records may use the word 'excluding', but if the Act is not quoted, the record has not been revised to reflect subsequent legislation.

Listed building consent is required for changes to a listed building which affect its character as a building of special architectural or historic interest. The relevant planning authority is the point of contact for applications for listed building consent.

Find out more about listing and our other designations at www.historicenvironment.scot/advice-and-support. You can contact us on 0131 668 8914 or at designations@hes.scot.

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