Benholms Lodge
Benholms Lodge Details
Benholms Lodge, unoccupied but private C17 tower house of the Keiths extended C18 and relocated c1971
- Closest To: Aberdeen
- Access: S.O.A.C. Public Access
- Grid Reference: NJ935089
Benholms Lodge, or Benholms Lodging, was the town residence of the Keith family of Benholm Castle within Aberdeen. It was originally located at the junction of Carnegie Brae and Netherkirkgate, but was removed in its entirety in 1964, and rebuilt at its current location in 1971 prior to the construction of the St Nicholas Shopping Centre. Today this location is beneath the Marks and Spencer shop – the company paid for the relocation works. At the time of writing the building is boarded up for safety reasons.
The tower house was a Z-plan building with a round tower at the north-east and south-west corners of a central rectangular accommodation block, and was founded in about 1610, soon after the Keiths had acquired the estate of Benholm. It was originally just outside the city walls; the Netherkirkgate port itself lay to the north-east. Sometimes referred to as the Wallace Tower, this is a corruption of Wellhouse rather than the family name. The entrance to the house was in the east face of the south-west tower, which contained the main stairs to the first floor, but this was changed with the addition of a triangular wing filling the courtyard space to the south of the main building. There was a garden to the west of the entrance tower.
The house is described as new in 1616, when Sir Robert Keith died, and was occupied by Dr Patrick Dun, the principal of Marischal College from 1621 to his death in 1652. It was then acquired by several different people in turn before it was purchased by an Aberdeen merchant, John Niven. It was Niven who extended the building by 1789, and at this time it was known as Keith’s Lodging. In 1895, when it was owned by James Pirie, a spirits dealer in Netherkirkgate, it was converted into a licensed premises, and renamed the Wallace Tower Bar. The name came from the pyramidal water cistern which once stood at the end of Carnegie Brae by the Lodging, and can be seen in the sketch of the building by James Skene, dated 1791. Today, the building is in a public park, and there are plans to return it to public use for the local residents.