Cairns Tower

Cairns Tower is a ruined tower house within the grounds of a working farm, and as such is not accessible to the public. It occupies a low hill which today juts into the Harperrig Reservoir. The tower is believed to date from the 15th century, and to have been erected by the Crichton family. Closely associated with their relatives the Lords Crichton the Crichtons of Cairns avoided the downfall of their chiefs, but suffered financially, selling Cairns to John Tennant in 1550. The Tennants remained lairds of Cairns until about 1700, after which the tower appears to have been allowed to fall into ruin, and soon after 1855 partially collapsed.

The tower is L-plan, with a single vaulted cellar at ground floor level in the main block, and another at right angles in the wing. There is an entrance at ground floor level in one of the gable ends of the hall, but as there is another almost directly above, and there is no evidence of an internal stair, this is likely to be a later insertion, with the basement accessed through a trapdoor. An internal door leads to the wing cellar. At first floor level, a narrow doorway leads into the wing; this doorway doubles up as a lobby from which a narrow turret stair led upwards. The second floor is inaccessible, but may have been divided. It is conceivable there was an attic level above, but the ruins are overgrown and inaccessible, meaning that the wallwalk cannot be interpreted.

HES Canmore database entry