The Castles of Scotland by Martin Coventry | Goblinshead | A comprehensive guide to 4,100 castles, towers, historic houses, stately homes and family lands
The Castles of Scotland by Martin Coventry | Goblinshead | A comprehensive guide to 4,100 castles, towers, historic houses, stately homes and family lands
The Castles of Scotland
The Castles of Scotland 

Dryhope Tower

Borders: About 2 miles east and north of Cappercleuch, on minor road north of A708 at Dryhope, about 0.3 miles north of St Mary’s Loch, west of Dryhope Burn, at Dryhope Tower.

 

Ruin or site   NT 267247   OS: 73   TD7 5LF

 

OPEN: Access at all reasonable times (use access to Southern Upland way to avoid farm).

Dryhope Tower, a ruinous old tower house is a scenic now peaceful location, once held by the turbulent Scott family and near Cappercleuch and St Mary's Loch in the Borders of southern Scotland. Dryhope Tower and Yarrow valley (Crockett/Scott, 1911)
Dryhope Tower, a ruinous old tower house is a scenic now peaceful location, once held by the turbulent Scott family and near Cappercleuch and St Mary's Loch in the Borders of southern Scotland. Dryhope Tower (Lang & Lang, 1913)

Overlooking St Mary’s Loch, Dryhope Tower is a ruined 16th-century tower house, formerly of three or four storeys. The walls are pierced by gunloops. The basement is vaulted, and a turnpike stair in one corner led up to the hall on the first floor, which was also vaulted. A courtyard, with a curtain wall, enclosed ranges of buildings.

Dryhope Tower, a ruinous old tower house is a scenic now peaceful location, once held by the turbulent Scott family and near Cappercleuch and St Mary's Loch in the Borders of southern Scotland. Dryhope Tower (old postcard)

Dryhope was a property of the Scotts, and was the home of Mary (or Marion) Scott, the Flower of Yarrow. The ballad the ‘Dowie Dens of Yarrow’ records, in several versions, the bloody events associated with her, when her suitor was waylaid and slain by her brothers with much carnage. In 1576 she married Walter Scott of Harden, ‘Auld Wat’, a famous Border reiver.

Dryhope Tower, a ruinous old tower house is a scenic now peaceful location, once held by the turbulent Scott family and near Cappercleuch and St Mary's Loch in the Borders of southern Scotland. Dryhope Tower (Crockett, 1905)
Dryhope Tower, a ruinous old tower house is a scenic now peaceful location, once held by the turbulent Scott family and near Cappercleuch and St Mary's Loch in the Borders of southern Scotland. Dryhope Tower (MacGibbon and Ross)

The tower was slighted in 1592 after the Scotts had been involved in some dastardly plot against James VI at Falkland Palace, but was rebuilt by 1613. The property appears to have gone to the Scotts of Buccleuch.
  The tower has been consolidated and cleared of vegetation.

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