Kirkconnell Tower, Dumfries And Galloway
Photo © Peter Neal, 5 July 2009
Kirkconnell Tower - Photo ©
Colin Smith, 4 April 2007
Kirkconnell Tower, Dumfries And Galloway
Photo © Colin Smith, 4 April 2007
Kirkconnell Tower, Dumfries And Galloway Photo © Peter Neal, 5 July 2009 |
Kirkconnell Tower - Photo © Colin Smith, 4 April 2007 |
Kirkconnell Tower, Dumfries And Galloway Photo © Colin Smith, 4 April 2007 |
--KIRKCONNELL TOWER. KIRKCUDBRIGHTSHIRE.
This small tower exists in a state of considerable completeness, but; still inhabited it has been entirely modernised in the interior. It ia a simple structure of the familiar L Plan, and measures on the outside 33 feet by 25 feet. The projecting staircase tower is about 14 feet square. The height from the ground to the top of the battlements is fully 38 feet, and to the top of the cape-house roof is 48 feet.
The walls of the ground floor are about 4 feet 6 inches thick, increased to about 5 feet thick on the upper floors. The ground floor is barrel-vaulted, and is lighted with two small cross-shaped loop-holes. The stair ascends to the three upper floors, and to the battlements, which run round the tower. From the main stair landing at the battlements a small turret stair leads to the cape-house, situated over the main stair. The room in the cape-house measures about 10 feet square, and is 6 feet 6 inches high. The turret stair lias a slight projection. The double windows on the first and second floors were put in by James Maxwell in 1780, on his return to Scotland, from which he had fled after the '45.
The lower floors consist of only one apartment on each. The second floor was divided into two rooms, as is apparent from the two separate doors; one entering directly from the stair, and the other, leading to the furthest room, being reached by a narrow passage in the thickness of the outside wall. Thus these two apartments do not enter through each other, but are both in direct communication with the stair.
The Kirkconnells of that Ilk have possessed these lands from very early times; and in 1410, Aymer de Maxwell, second son of Sir Herbert de Maxwell of Caerlaverock, married Janet de Kirkconnell, and with their descendants the property has ever since remained.
THE CASTELLATED AND DOMESTIC ARCHITECTURE OF SCOTLAND BY DAVID MACGIBBON AND THOMAS ROSS, 1889--