Description
Cardrona is an example of the type of small residence built by many lairds, who were keen to be accommodated within houses displaying the accepted towered symbolism of moderate defensibility, but who could afford to do so on no more than a very limited scale. It is located within a hollow on the steep hillside above the Tweed Valley, and there are traces of a courtyard on the south-west side of the tower.
The tower, which is of the common L-shaped plan, has its main body aligned from north-west to south-east, and has a small stair tower projecting at its western angle with the entrance doorway at its base. The walls, which are relatively thin, are built of roughly coursed whinstone, with only minimal ashlar dressings. Any worked stonework around the doorway has been robbed, and its place now taken by modern masonry, above the doorway is a framed recess, which was presumably intended to house an armorial panel.
The ground floor of the tower is occupied by a low barrel vaulted chamber that has been lit by narrow slit openings in the two gable walls. Above that level are two floors with a single rectangular chamber on each, and there was presumably a garret within the roof space. There are the remains of fireplaces in the south-east gable wall of the two levels of chambers, but there is nothing to suggest that either they or the windows at those levels were treated with any more than a minimal degree of finish.
There appears to have been a wall walk on the south-west side of the tower, reached from a cap house at the head of the stair tower. Why that wall walk should have been provided on the side towards the courtyard is unclear. There is evidence of some 'lairdish' repairs. In addition to those around the doorway which have already been mentioned, some areas around the windows appear to have been rebuilt.
History
Cardrona was the home of a branch of the Govan family between the fourteenth and later seventeenth centuries, and it was presumably a member of that family who built the tower now seen, most likely around the later decades of the sixteenth century.
In 1685 the estate was acquired by James Williamson of Hutchinfield, and he appears to have taken an immediate decision to abandon the tower in favour of a new house further down the hillside. An inscribed stone with his initials and the date 1686 is built into the later house, which in its present form dates from a further rebuilding of 1840.
Status
The tower stands on irregular ground in a clearing within an extensively afforested area, and the only current access is by way of a forest track. Apart from the loss of some dressed stonework the tower is largely complete for much of its height.
Conservation Options
The tower would be sufficiently complete to permit restoration with little need for conjecture. However, the very limited accommodation it offers, together with the remote location and the difficulties of providing services might be problematic for any proposal.
Bibliography
C Cruft, J Dunbar and R Fawcett, The Buildings of Scotland, Borders, New Haven and London, 2006, p 150
D. MacGibbon and T. Ross, The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland, vol 3, Edinburgh, 1889, pp 554-5
Royal Commission on the Ancient Monuments of Scotland, Inventory of Peebleshire vol 2, Edinburgh, 1967, pp 220-1