Cessford Castle

Cessford Castle stands as a gaunt ruin in the Scottish Borders, raised around 1450 by Andrew Ker as the chief seat of his family and the head of the Barony of Cessford. The Kerrs were among the most feared of the Border Reivers, and their stronghold was built to match that reputation. It followed an L-shaped plan, pairing a main keep with a wing of almost equal size, and rose to as many as six storeys, two of them roofed with barrel vaults. The walls reach a remarkable thickness of up to thirteen feet, and the angle of the building was closed off by a single-storey gatehouse, ringed in turn by a barmekin and earthworks. Such defences were tested in 1523, when the Earl of Surrey laid siege during the wars with England. His troops had to scale the courtyard walls to force an entry, and Surrey afterwards judged that the castle might never have fallen had its defenders been able to hold out. The Kerrs eventually left the fortress, which was abandoned in 1650. Today the shattered tower survives as a listed building, its immense walls still conveying the strength that once made it so hard to take.