Touch House

Stirling & Clackmannanshire: About 3 miles west and south of Stirling, on minor roads south of A811, 1 mile west of Cambusbarron, at Touch House.

Private   NS 753928   OS: 57   FK8 3AQ

OPEN: Business centre. Residential lets. Meetings and events.
Tel: 01786 448899   Web: www.touchestate.co.uk   

Nestling in the Touch Hills, Touch House is an altered 15th-century tower of four storeys and a garret, possibly later modified to a Z-plan with the addition of rectangular towers at opposite corners. The tower has a crenellated parapet, around two sides, and a caphouse crowns the stair.
  The original entrance, now built over, lay at the foot of the stairway. The basement is vaulted. There is a walled garden.
  To this a large mansion was added in the late 16th or early 17th century, and this was later rebuilt as a classical mansion of three storeys crowned by a triangular pediment with an elaborate coat of arms, possibly designed by William Adam. The mansion has a fine interior.
  The property was held in 1234 by the Frasers, but by 1426 had passed to the Stewart Earls of Buchan, then was acquired by the Setons around the end of the 15th century. Sir Alexander Seton of Touch was Armour Bearer to James IV, and the next lord, Sir Alexander, was slain at the Battle of Flodden in 1513. In 1708 the Laird of Touch was one of five lords involved in an unsuccessful attempt to put James VII on the throne, a venture in which Rob Roy MacGregor was implicated. Bonnie Prince Charlie stayed here in 1745.
  The property passed by marriage around 1750 to the Seton-Stewarts of Allanton and Touch, who held it until the 1920s. The family spent so much money on the house and agricultural improvements that Hugh, the then owner, ended up in a debtors’ prison in Dover Castle. The fortunes of the family, however, were later restored.
  The property was sold to the Buchanans in 1928, who had Sir Robert Lorimer restore the building.
  The building was used as a convalescent home during World War II, but is now occupied as a private home. There is a business centre in the former stable block.
  The house was used as Culloden House in the second series of Outlander.