A tower house is a particular type of stone structure, built for defensive purposes as well as habitation. The term habitat comes from Ecology, and includes many interrelated features especially the immediate physical environment, the Urban environment or the [1] Such buildings were constructed in the wilder parts of Great Britain, particularly in Scotland, and throughout Ireland, beginning in the High Middle Ages and continuing at least up to the 17th century. See also Kingdom of Great Britain Great Britain (Breatainn Mhòr Prydain Fawr Breten Veur Graet Breetain is the larger of the two main islands Scotland ( Gaelic: Alba) is a Country in northwest Europethat occupies the northern third of the island of Great Britain. Ireland (pronounced /ˈaɾlənd/ Éire) is the third largest island in Europe, and the twentieth-largest island in the world The High Middle Ages was the period of European history in the 11th 12th and 13th centuries (AD 1000&ndash1299 As a means of recording the passage of Time, the 17th Century was that Century which lasted from 1601 - 1700 in the Gregorian calendar The remains of such structures are dotted around the Irish and Scottish countryside, with a particular concentration in the Scottish Borders where they include peel towers and bastle houses. The Scottish Borders, often referred to simply as the Borders, is one of 32 local government council areas of Scotland. Peel towers (also spelt pele) are small fortified keeps or Tower houses built along the English and Scottish Borders, intended as watch towers where Bastle houses are found along the Anglo - Scottish border in the areas formerly plagued by Border Reivers. Some are still intact and even inhabited today, while others stand as ruined shells.
Tower houses are often called castles, and despite their characteristic compact footprint size, they are formidable habitations and there is no clear distinction between a castle and a tower house. A castle is a defensive structure seen as one of the main symbols of the Middle Ages. In Scotland a classification system has been widely accepted based on ground plan, such as the L Plan Castle style, one example being the original layout (prior to enlargement) of Muchalls Castle in Scotland. An L-plan castle is a castle or towerhouse in the shape of an L typically built in the 13th to the 17th century Muchalls Castle stands overlooking the North Sea in the countryside of Kincardine and Mearns, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. Scotland ( Gaelic: Alba) is a Country in northwest Europethat occupies the northern third of the island of Great Britain. [2][3]
The few surviving round Scottish Iron Age towers known as brochs are often compared to tower houses, having mural passages and a basebatter although the entrances to Brochs are far less ostentatious. This article is about the archaeological period known as the Iron Age for the mythological Iron Age see Ages of Man. A Broch is an Iron Age Drystone hollow-walled structure of a type found only in Scotland.
In Ireland, there are well over 2,000 tower houses extant and some estimate that there were as many as 8,000 built during the Middle Ages. Ireland (pronounced /ˈaɾlənd/ Éire) is the third largest island in Europe, and the twentieth-largest island in the world The construction of the majority of tower houses is thought to have commenced in the early fifteenth century AD and lasted until the mid-seventeenth century. After 1580 many lords built fortified houses and stronghouses although tower houses continued to be built until the guns of the Cromwellians rendered such private defenses more or less obsolete. It is possible that many were built after King Henry VI of England introduced a building subsidy of £10 in 1429 to every man in the Pale who wished to build a castle within 10 years, Ireland being under English control at the time (Statute Rolls of the Parliament of Ireland, Reign of Henry VI, pp 33-5) although recent studies have undermined the significance of this grant, demonstrating that there were many similar grants at different times and in different areas. The Pale ( An Pháil in Irish) or the English Pale ( An Pháil Sasanach) was the English-controlled part of Ireland that had reduced by the late Tower Houses in Ireland were built mainly by the Catholic Anglo-Irish but also by the Gaelic Irish and more recent Protestant and Presbyterian settlers. Many of these structures were positioned within sight of each other and a system of visual communication is said to have been established between them, based on line of sight from the uppermost levels, although this may simply be a result of their high density. County Kilkenny has several examples of this arrangement such as Ballyshawnmore and Neigham. Kilkenny, ( is a city and county town of County Kilkenny in Ireland. County Clare, although outside English control, is known to have had approximately 230 tower houses in the 17th century, some of which were later surveyed by the notable Irish antiquarian Thomas Johnson Westropp in the 1890s. Thomas Johnson Westropp (1860-1922 was an Irish antiquarian Early life Westropp a notable antiquarian in Victorian Ireland and a collector of folklore was born at Attyflin The Irish tower house was used for both defensive and residential reasons, with many chiefly families building tower houses during the 15th and 16th centuries on their demesne lands in order to assert status and provide a residence for the senior lineage of the family.
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World wide perspective
While tower houses are appropriately attributed to the British Isles as their main occurrence, examples from elsewhere in Europe and the New World exist, usually in areas which had a somewhat similar social structure. There are, for instance, numerous examples in Georgia in the Caucasus, where there was a clan-like social structure (surviving here into the 19th or even 20th century) in a country where fierce competition over limited natural resources, led to chronic feuding between neighbours. Georgia ( საქართველო, Sakartvelo) is a Transcontinental country in the Caucasus region situated at the dividing line between The Caucasus ( also referred to as North Caucasus) is a geopolitical region located between Europe Asia & Middle East One theory suggests that private tower like structures proliferate in areas where central authority is weak, leading to a need for a status symbol incorporating private defenses against small scale attacks.
Most notable in the New World might be considered a focal element of the Mesa Verde Anasazi ruin in Colorado, USA. Mesa Verde National Park is a US National Park and UNESCO World Heritage Site located in Montezuma County, Colorado, United "Anasazi" directs here For the X-Files episode see Anasazi (The X-Files. The State of Colorado ( or chiefly by nonresidents) is a state located in the Rocky Mountain region of the United States of America. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the [4] There is a prominent structure at that site which is in fact called the "tower house" and has the general appearance characteristics of its British Isles counterparts. The British Isles (Irish variously Na hOileáin Bhriotanacha, Oileáin Iarthair Eorpa, Éire agus an Bhreatain Mhór; Ellanyn Goaldagh Eileanan This four story building was constructed of adobe bricks circa 1350 AD, and its rather well preserved ruins are nestled within a cliff overhang; moreover, other accounts date this ruin somewhat earlier. Adobe bricks are a Natural building material made from Sand, Clay, water and some kind of fibrous or Organic material ( Sticks, This article is about ruins in Architecture; for other meanings see Ruins (disambiguation. In Geography and Geology, a cliff is a significant vertical or near vertical rock exposure The towers of the ancient pueblo people are, however, both of smaller ground plan than Old World tower houses, and are generally only parts of complexes housing communities, rather than isolated structures housing an individual family and their retainers, as in Europe.
After initial European tower houses appearing in Ireland, Scotland and England during the High Middle Ages, Toy traces the appearance in other parts of western Europe as early as the late 14th century, especially in parts of France and Italy. Ireland (pronounced /ˈaɾlənd/ Éire) is the third largest island in Europe, and the twentieth-largest island in the world Scotland ( Gaelic: Alba) is a Country in northwest Europethat occupies the northern third of the island of Great Britain. England is a Country which is part of the United Kingdom. Its inhabitants account for more than 83% of the total UK population whilst its mainland The High Middle Ages was the period of European history in the 11th 12th and 13th centuries (AD 1000&ndash1299 This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest
References
- ^ Sidney Toy, Castles: Their Construction and History, (1985), Courier Dover Publications, ISBN 0486248984
- ^ MacIntosh, J. Gordon, Country Life Magazine, Dec. Country Life is a British weekly Magazine. It covers the pleasures and joys of Rural life as well as the concerns of rural people 18, 1937, pp 630-634
- ^ C.Michael Hogan, Sigvard Richardson and Peter Graves, History of Muchalls Castle, Kincardineshire, Scotland, Lumina Press, Aberdeen (2004)
- ^ Tower house structure at Mesa Verde
Thomas Johnson Westropp, "Notes on the Lessor Castles or 'Peel Towers' of the County Clare", Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy, Vol. 20, pp. 348-65, 1899.
See also
Gallery
 Tower house near Quin, beside the R469 road from Limerick to Ennis. Bastle houses are found along the Anglo - Scottish border in the areas formerly plagued by Border Reivers. A castle is a defensive structure seen as one of the main symbols of the Middle Ages. A keep is a strong central Tower which is used as a dungeon or a fortress An L-plan castle is a castle or towerhouse in the shape of an L typically built in the 13th to the 17th century A manor house or fortified manor-house is a Country house, which has historically formed the administrative centre of a manor (see Manorialism Peel towers (also spelt pele) are small fortified keeps or Tower houses built along the English and Scottish Borders, intended as watch towers where The Fortified House in Scotland is a five-volume book by the Scottish author Nigel Tranter. Regional roads are also used in some parts of Ontario See County Road for more information Limerick (pronounced /ˈlɪmrɪk/ Luimneach in Irish) is a city and the county seat of County Limerick in the Province of Munster Ennis ( is the County town of Clare in Ireland. Situated on the River Fergus, it lies north of Limerick and south of Galway |
 Neidpath Castle near Peebles. Neidpath Castle is a L-plan rubble built tower overlooking the River Tweed about 1 mile (2 km west of Peebles in the Borders of Scotland Peebles ( Gaelic: Na Pùballan is a Burgh in the Committee area of Tweeddale, in the Scottish Borders, |
 Smailholm Tower hear Kelso. Smailholm Tower is a Peel tower that stands around five miles west of Kelso in the Scottish Borders. |
 Greenknowe Tower in the Scottish Borders. Greenknowe Tower is a 16th century Tower house, located just west of the village of Gordon, in the Scottish Borders. The Scottish Borders, often referred to simply as the Borders, is one of 32 local government council areas of Scotland. |
External links
- Cutaway drawing Of Urquhart Castle tower house
- Information on tower houses
- Ardglass .The Irish village with seven tower houses.
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