Bonshaw Tower is an

oblong An oblong is a non-square rectangle. Oblong may also refer to: Places * Oblong, Illinois, a village in the United States * Oblong Township, Crawford County, Illinois, United States * A strip of land on the New York-Connecticut border in the Unit ...

tower house A tower house is a particular type of stone structure, built for defensive purposes as well as habitation. Tower houses began to appear in the Middle Ages, especially in mountainous or limited access areas, in order to command and defend strateg ...

, probably dating from the mid-16th century, one mile south of

Kirtlebridge Kirtlebridge is a village in Dumfries and Galloway, southern Scotland. It is located north-east of Annan, north-west of Kirkpatrick-Fleming, and south of Eaglesfield. The village is located where the A74(M) motorway and the West Coast Main L ...

Dumfries and Galloway Dumfries and Galloway ( sco, Dumfries an Gallowa; gd, Dùn Phrìs is Gall-Ghaidhealaibh) is one of 32 unitary council areas of Scotland and is located in the western Southern Uplands. It covers the counties of Scotland, historic counties of ...

Scotland Scotland (, ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Covering the northern third of the island of Great Britain, mainland Scotland has a border with England to the southeast and is otherwise surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean to the ...

, above the

Kirtle Water The Kirtle Water is a river in Dumfries and Galloway in southern Scotland. It rises on the southern slopes of Haggy Hill where its headwaters are impounded to form Winterhope Reservoir. Below the dam it flows in a generally southerly direction pas ...

.Lindsay, Maurice (1986) ''The Castles of Scotland''. Constable. p.86, 87 It is adjacent to a 19th-century mansion. The tower was one of a number of structures built along the Scottish border in the 1500s as protection against incursions by the English.

History

Bonshaw, one of the ancient Irving border towers, was owned for centuries by the Irvings of Bonshaw; it was the family seat in an unbroken succession. That ended in 1954, on the death of Sir Robert Beaufin Irving, a former captain of . Bonshaw passed to Sir Robert's nephew, Commander G. R. I. Irving RN, who sold it to a descendant of the Irvings of Wysebie. In subsequent years, it was purchased by "a junior line within the Irvings of Gribton & Dumfries, a distant branch of the Irvings of Bonshaw", according to the Clan Irving web site. Historical summaries indicates that the tower was built ca. 1570 and was burned and then blown up by the English in the same century, but was later rebuilt. Records discuss several battles in and around the property during that century. The two-story house attached to the tower was built c.1770 but was increased in size starting in the 1840s, according to ''The Castles of Scotland''. King James VI visited Bonshaw, in 1601 or 1602 when it was known as "Boneschaw".Bonshaw Tower History
/ref> Historical records also speak of an earlier Bonshaw Tower, in 1298, for example, when Robert the Bruce took refuge there; the owner at the time was shown as Sir William de Irving. A travelogue from 1873 discusses the seat of the Clan, a very well preserved tower and a "plain, modern house, built during the last century". The property has been Category-A listed since 1971, as a tower house with courtyard walls. The listing indicates that the tower was probably built in the mid 1500s, with additions in 1841/1842. In 1896 the tower was linked to the house with a "low corridor". The "crenellated low wall" was rebuilt in 1895, although earlier repairs were apparent, through the use of stones from the 16th and 17th century. By the 21st century, the property was still owned by members of the Irving family and was the family home. However, the tower and/or the gardens were available as a venue for weddings and other events.Bonshaw Tower
/ref>

Structure

The castle, which is habitable, has three

storeys A storey (British English) or story (American English) is any level part of a building with a floor that could be used by people (for living, work, storage, recreation, etc.). Plurals for the word are ''storeys'' (UK) and ''stories'' (US). Th ...

, and a

garret A garret is a habitable attic, a living space at the top of a house or larger residential building, traditionally, small, dismal, and cramped, with sloping ceilings. In the days before elevators this was the least prestigious position in a bu ...

, with crow-stepped gables, within a

parapet A parapet is a barrier that is an extension of the wall at the edge of a roof, terrace, balcony, walkway or other structure. The word comes ultimately from the Italian ''parapetto'' (''parare'' 'to cover/defend' and ''petto'' 'chest/breast'). Whe ...

. The north-facing former attic light is now used as an open belfry. Inside a modern porch is the entrance door, with the motto SOLI DEO HONOR ET GLORIA above. There is a monogrammed pendant boss within the doorway. A

vaulted In architecture, a vault (French ''voûte'', from Italian ''volta'') is a self-supporting arched form, usually of stone or brick, serving to cover a space with a ceiling or roof. As in building an arch, a temporary support is needed while ring ...

entrance passage in the thickness of the wall leads to a vaulted basement. Each wall has a splayed shot-hole. The south-west angle contains a windowless

dungeon A dungeon is a room or cell in which prisoners are held, especially underground. Dungeons are generally associated with medieval castles, though their association with torture probably belongs more to the Renaissance period. An oubliette (from ...

, with a ventilation

flue A flue is a duct, pipe, or opening in a chimney for conveying exhaust gases from a fireplace, furnace, water heater, boiler, or generator to the outdoors. Historically the term flue meant the chimney itself. In the United States, they are al ...

. There is a hatch in the vaulting to the first-floor

Hall In architecture, a hall is a relatively large space enclosed by a roof and walls. In the Iron Age and early Middle Ages in northern Europe, a mead hall was where a lord and his retainers ate and also slept. Later in the Middle Ages, the gr ...

. From the north-east angle of the cellar a turnpike stair leads to all storeys of the tower. The hall has a wide fireplace and four windows. There are two aumbries in the

jambs A jamb (from French ''jambe'', "leg"), in architecture, is the side-post or lining of a doorway or other aperture. The jambs of a window outside the frame are called “reveals.” Small shafts to doors and windows with caps and bases are know ...

while a third aumbry has an

ogival An ogive ( ) is the roundly tapered end of a two-dimensional or three-dimensional object. Ogive curves and surfaces are used in engineering, architecture and woodworking. Etymology The earliest use of the word ''ogive'' is found in the 13th c ...

lintel A lintel or lintol is a type of beam (a horizontal structural element) that spans openings such as portals, doors, windows and fireplaces. It can be a decorative architectural element, or a combined ornamented structural item. In the case of w ...

. The bedroom, on the second floor, has a wall press and a

garderobe Garderobe is a historic term for a room in a medieval castle. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' gives as its first meaning a store-room for valuables, but also acknowledges "by extension, a private room, a bed-chamber; also a privy". The word der ...

. One of its four windows is high in the wall. There is a

machicolated A machicolation (french: mâchicoulis) is a floor opening between the supporting corbels of a battlement, through which stones or other material, such as boiling water, hot sand, Calcium oxide#Weapon, quicklime or boiling cooking oil, could be dro ...

opening about each

embrasure An embrasure (or crenel or crenelle; sometimes called gunhole in the domain of gunpowder-era architecture) is the opening in a battlement between two raised solid portions (merlons). Alternatively, an embrasure can be a space hollowed out ...

of the parapet, which is drained by

gargoyle In architecture, and specifically Gothic architecture, a gargoyle () is a carved or formed grotesque with a spout designed to convey water from a roof and away from the side of a building, thereby preventing it from running down masonry walls ...

d cannon-spouts. The present pitched slate roof was installed in the early 19th century, as the

flagstone Flagstone (flag) is a generic flat stone, sometimes cut in regular rectangular or square shape and usually used for paving slabs or walkways, patios, flooring, fences and roofing. It may be used for memorials, headstones, facades and other con ...

s of the original roof were removed to floor a farmhouse.

References

{{coord , 55.0376, N, 3.1875, W, display=title Castles in Dumfriesshire Category A listed buildings in Dumfries and Galloway Listed castles in Scotland Tower houses in Scotland