Cramond Tower
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Cramond Tower | |
|---|---|
| Edinburgh, Scotland | |
_-_panoramio.jpg) Cramond Tower | |
| Site information | |
| Owner | private residence |
Listed Building – Category B | |
| Official name | 4 Kirk Cramond, Cramond Tower[1] |
| Designated | 14 July 1966[1] |
| Reference no. | LB28018[1] |
| Location | |
  Cramond Tower | |
| Coordinates | 55°58′42″N 3°17′51″W / 55.9782368°N 3.2976298°W |
| Site history | |
| Built | 15th century |
Cramond Tower is a fifteenth-century tower house in the village of Cramond to the north-west of Edinburgh, Scotland.
The area around the Tower has had a human settlement since the time of Ancient Rome, and there are relics from that time in the area.[2] The Tower was probably built in the late 15th or early 16th century, primarily as a defensive feature, although it could have been built earlier, and may have been mentioned in 1409.[3][4][5] It was at one stage part of the bishop of Dunkeld's summer residence.[6]
It became the property of James Inglis, an Edinburgh merchant, in 1622.[5] He repurposed the tower to make it more comfortable for occupation, adding and enlarging windows and creating internal recesses to increase the available living space.[5] His grandson moved to the nearby Cramond House in 1680, and the tower was abandoned for the next 300 years.[6]
It was portrayed as a romantic ruin by James Skene in 1837, and was in a poor state of preservation by the middle of the twentieth century.[7][4] In the 1960s, the City of Edinburgh Council put a concrete cap on the roof and cleared the vegetation.[4][5]
In 1978, it was acquired by Eric Jamieson, an amateur antiquarian.[6] Between 1979 and 1981, it was restored by architects Robert Hurd & Partners into a private residence.[5][2]
It was damaged by a fire in 2011.[8]
Description
The castle is a nearly square four-storey tower house, around 25 feet (7.6 m) on each side and with walls up to 5 feet (1.5 m) thick.[6] In the south-east corner is a round staircase that protrudes from the building.[5] Currently, the tower has a store at ground level, a living room on the first floor, kitchen on the second, and bedrooms and bathrooms on the third and fourth floors.[5][9] A pitched roof has been re-erected as part of the restoration.[10] In the 1990s, a stone extension was added on the east side.[9]
It is a category B listed building.[5]
