Blackhouse Tower

Blackhouse Tower is a ruined tower house built in a remote area of Ettrick Forest on a small area of haugh bounded by the confluence of the Craighope Burn with the Douglas Burn, a tributary of the Yarrow Water. Unmaintained tracks lead from Craig Douglas up into the hills a distance of about two miles before the site is reached. The tower survives as rough fangs of masonry above the lower courses, presumably having been robbed of the quality masonry for farm usage.

The tower was built on a variation of the L-plan, with the modest rectangular hall block flanked at the south-west corner by a round tower serving as the wing. A ground floor gap in the east gable leads into the vaulted basement, above which was a mezzanine floor, into the stair tower. However, this may be remains of a later insertion, as the part of the wing that would more commonly contain the entrance has fallen, and the winding stair itself is oriented towards an entrance there. There were narrow slit windows in the north, west, and south walls of the basement, and in the east and west at mezzanine level. The mezzanine had a fireplace above the doorway in the east gable, which suggests that there may have been a fireplace beneath, and this is actually the cause of the breach, and not an entrance. Adjacent to the fireplace ion the north wall is a slop-drain.

The lands of Blackhouse were part of the extensive lordship of Ettrick Forest held by the Douglas family in the 14th and 15th century, and the fragmentary ruined tower at Craig Douglas was their castle in the area. At this time it was an upland forest steading held from the Earl of Douglas, but after the civil war of the 1450s, the whole Forest was forfeited to the Crown. The revenues were granted to Margaret Tudor, the queen of James IV, in 1504, and in 1509, Murray of Falahill was appointed as sheriff within the forest; his descendants were retained as sheriffs until the position was abolished by James VI. In 1595, Blackhouse was amongst a group of lands granted to Sir William Stewart of Traquair, and was held by his son James and his grandson John. By 1628, however, it had become the property of the earl of Buccleuch. The tower is usually stated to have been built for the Stewarts, although it may be slightly earlier. It is mentioned in the Sir Walter Scott’s Minstrelsy of the Scottish Border in “The Douglas Tragedy” – but this ballad may have been composed by James Hogg, an 18th century tenant of Laidlaw of Blackhouse. It is not known when the tower was abandoned.

HES Canmore database entry