Greenknowe Tower

Greenknowe Tower stands as a roofless but remarkably well-preserved ruin near Gordon in the Scottish Borders, built in 1581 by James Seton. His initials, those of his wife Janet Edmonstone, the date, and the couple’s coats of arms are still inscribed above the doorway. The Seton family had held the surrounding lands since the early fifteenth century, when Alexander Seton married a Gordon heiress. The tower follows an L-plan: a four-storey main block joined by a five-storey stair wing, raised in rubble masonry of local basalt with red sandstone dressings. Crow-stepped gables cap the walls, and angle-turrets, or bartizans, project from the corners, the one on the wing carrying decorative machicolations. An original iron yett still guards the entrance. Inside, the vaulted basement held a kitchen and cellar, with a small gun-looped chamber tucked beneath the stair, while the first-floor hall was lit by four windows and warmed by a broad fireplace. In the seventeenth century the Pringles of Stichill acquired the tower, enlarging its windows and adding to the building. It remained occupied until the mid-nineteenth century, then passed into state care in 1937 following restoration. Today it is a Scheduled Ancient Monument under Historic Environment Scotland’s guardianship.