Boreland Tower Dumgree

Boreland Tower Dumgree is the single storey remains of a vaulted tower house which has been repurposed as a garden shed in a private garden. It sits at the top of a bank overlooking a small burn which empties into the Kinnel Water a short distance to the east, potentially the site of a ford.

The lands were part of the wider lands of Dumgree, the church lands of which had been a property of Kelso Abby since it was granted to the abbey by the Bishop of Glasgow between 1181×95. There are no records referring to the lands of Dumgree at this time. However, in 1357, a charter was confirmed by which the lordship was granted to Roger de Kirkpatrick by John Corry of that Ilk, whose family had been men of the Bruce Lords of Annandale. As such it seems likely that Dumgree had been held by the Corry family for some time previously, although there have been no sites identified as the caput of Dumgree, the church of which is half a mile north of Boreland.

By 1408 the lands were part of the barony of Amisfield, held from the earls of Douglas, and then the Charteris family by the Johnstones. By the late 16th century the tower had been erected. It seems to have been a fairly modest rectangular tower about ten metres by seven, with a now-vanished entrance and stair in the south-western corner. A slit window was present on the east gable , and two in the south wall. The lower 1.2 metres has square corners, rounded higher up, which is unusual. The tower was seemingly accompanied by a walled courtyard extending to the east, which changed size more than once. Possible building footings can be seen covered in turf, but have not been excavated. By the mid 18th century, the two sizeable farmtouns of Boreland and Dumgreemill are depicted by Roy, neither of which survived to the first Ordnance Survey.

HES Canmore database entry