Aikwood Tower to become a Hotel

**cessna152towser** · 11th January 11, 06:33 AM

A place for our North American friends to stay when they come to Scotland

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotlan...tland-12160769

**piperdbh** · 11th January 11, 07:02 AM

Is this near you, Alex?

And what's a "peel tower"?

**starbkjrus** · 11th January 11, 12:02 PM

Originally Posted by piperdbh

Is this near you, Alex?

It's near Selkirk so abt 15 miles.

That looks very interesting Alex. They have a nice website as well. (I'd like more pics on their website [interiors and such] but I'm sure they'll get there.)

**Mike_Oettle** · 11th January 11, 12:27 PM

Fascinating-looking place, Alex. You will have to go there and take some more pictures!
Regards,
Mike

**cessna152towser** · 11th January 11, 12:02 PM

Aikwood (or Oak Wood) Tower is situated about ten miles from my house.
Here is a definition of a peel tower copied from Wikipedia:-
Peel towers (also spelt pele) are small fortified keeps or tower houses, built along the English and Scottish borders in the Scottish Marches and North of England, intended as watch towers where signal fires could be lit by the garrison to warn of approaching danger. By an Act of Parliament in 1455, each of these towers was required to have an iron basket on its summit and a smoke or fire signal, for day or night use, ready at hand.
A line of these towers was built in the 1430s across the Tweed valley from Berwick to its source, as a response to the dangers of invasion from the Marches. Others were built in Cumberland, Westmorland, Yorkshire, North Riding and Northumberland, and as far south as Lancashire, in response to the threat of attack from the Scots and the Border Reivers of both nationalities.
Apart from their primary purpose as a warning system, these towers were also the homes of the Lairds and landlords of the area, who dwelt in them with their families and retainers, while their followers lived in simple huts outside the walls. The towers also provide a refuge so that, when cross-border raiding parties arrived, the whole population of a village could take to the tower and wait for the marauders to depart.
Here is a view of neighbouring Kirkhope Tower which I took in October 2010.