Orchardton Tower
South of Castle Douglas,
Dumfries & Galloway.
Dumfries & Galloway.
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All images are © 400photos.uk
All images are © 400photos.uk
Orchardton Tower is a little different from the norm. As you can see it's a round tower built as a
fortified home. It's not far from the Solway coast, the closest town being Castle Douglas.
It's the only one of its kind in Scotland. Round towers (also known as donjons, same linguistic root as dungeons) were popular up to about the late 1200s and usually formed the corners of bigger castles. Four tower houses, four straight walls between and you have a castle.
This one was built by a local nobleman named John Cairns in about 1455 two hundred years past their peak of popularity.
The castle originally had a door higher up the wall facing you in the last photo (arched top, grille) and part of the stairway is still intact. Either the world around became quieter or safer or perhaps the owner got old and couldn't climb so many stairs so it was changed to the lower level round the back to the right shown in the last photo and at the top of the overhead shot.
The smaller building to the side, still partly roofed, was a storage cellar and perhaps staff living quarters or maybe a stable?
. Currently the castle is closed to visitors (hopefully temporarily) due to unsafe masonry but has in the past been open for many years for the public to wander in and out.
Open to the public on the outside, free access, free parking, tricky for the less abled. No close public transport.
Not far away are the villages of Palnackie on the River Urr and Kippford, further downstream.
It's the only one of its kind in Scotland. Round towers (also known as donjons, same linguistic root as dungeons) were popular up to about the late 1200s and usually formed the corners of bigger castles. Four tower houses, four straight walls between and you have a castle.
This one was built by a local nobleman named John Cairns in about 1455 two hundred years past their peak of popularity.
The castle originally had a door higher up the wall facing you in the last photo (arched top, grille) and part of the stairway is still intact. Either the world around became quieter or safer or perhaps the owner got old and couldn't climb so many stairs so it was changed to the lower level round the back to the right shown in the last photo and at the top of the overhead shot.
The smaller building to the side, still partly roofed, was a storage cellar and perhaps staff living quarters or maybe a stable?
. Currently the castle is closed to visitors (hopefully temporarily) due to unsafe masonry but has in the past been open for many years for the public to wander in and out.
Open to the public on the outside, free access, free parking, tricky for the less abled. No close public transport.
Not far away are the villages of Palnackie on the River Urr and Kippford, further downstream.
