Preston Tower, East Lothian

Preston Tower stands as a ruined L-plan keep in the old village of Prestonpans, its walls carrying a layered story of Scottish life. The original four storeys may reach back to the fourteenth century, and the property passed to the Hamilton family through marriage around the close of that century. What makes the tower unusual is its later crown: in 1626 two further storeys were raised above the parapet, fitted with Renaissance windows bearing the initials of Sir John and Dame Katherine Hamilton — a domestic flourish set atop a defensive base. That base was built for trouble. The entrance once carried a lean-to hoarding from which defenders could drop boulders, hot sand, or scalding oil on attackers below. The tower endured repeated fire: the Earl of Hertford burnt it in 1544 during the Rough Wooing, Cromwell’s forces burnt it again in 1650, destroying the family records, and a final accidental blaze in 1663 saw the Hamiltons abandon it for nearby Preston House. Acquired by the National Trust for Scotland in 1969 and now under the guardianship of East Lothian Council, the surrounding grounds hold a seventeenth-century doocot, a herb garden, and a laburnum arch.