Orchardton Tower

Orchardton Tower stands in the countryside of Dumfries and Galloway, notable as the only cylindrical tower house in Scotland. John Cairns raised it in the later fifteenth century, soon after he was granted the lands of Orchardton in 1456. Its round form was already unusual by then: such towers had been common in the thirteenth century but had mostly given way to square and rectangular designs by the 1400s. The tower rises about eleven metres, roughly nine metres across, tapering slightly towards its top. A vaulted cellar fills the ground floor, while the main room above once held a fireplace, deep window seats, and a carved lavabo. Around it lay a walled yard, or barmkin, sheltering livestock and housing cellars, a bakehouse and probably a hall. The Cairns family and their successors left a turbulent record: William Cairns took part in the 1527 murder of Thomas McLellan of Bombie, and Robert Maxwell of Orchardton was wounded and captured after fighting at Culloden in 1746. The estate passed to the Douglas family in 1785. Today the tower survives as a scheduled ancient monument in the care of Historic Environment Scotland, its upper floors long collapsed but its distinctive circular walls still standing.