Goldielands Tower

[cessna152towser]

I went to the front door but it was locked

And then round the back but it was locked too.

And then back round the front again - I was wearing a cheap polycotton kilt because the ground was muddy after all the rain and I didn't want to get an expensive wool kilt dirty.

I took another photo of the tower

And then another; and then the tenant farmer came out of his house to see what I was about

[cessna152towser]

And the farmer was friendly and had the key for the tower and showed me inside.

From the cellar floor it was possible to take flashlight photos of the domed roof, above which would have been the laird's hall with its characteristic stone floor and grand fireplace.

North-west corner of the domed cellar roof.

[cessna152towser]

This tower contained two storeys of cellarage below the laird's hall, which explains why all the windows seen from the outside are so high up; there would have been a wooden ceiling separating the two levels; here we see the aperture from the turreted staircase into the upper cellar level.

The turreted staircase is still there.

The farmer showed me this print of a sketch dated 1706, which shows the tower when it still had its roof and parapet, and also shows a low building attached to the north face and a second tower to the north which no longer exists. There are however traces on the north face of the tower of the gable of an earlier, lower rise building which was once attached there, (see the fifth photo in the first posting), though this appears to have been of a larger size in proportion to the tower, when compared with the sketch.

The 1706 illustration shows a low building attached to the north face of Goldielands Tower, though the building shown here is joined to the south face.
Well that's it folks, time to go home for lunch.