roxburgh-1956-vol-2/-05_069

Transcription

No. 573 -- MELROSE PARISH -- No. 573

The first floor seems to have been divided into two
rooms, the E. one being the kitchen as it has a fire-
place in the gable with a sink at the back and an oven
in the N. jamb. The kitchen had a single window to
the S., the E. jamb containing an aumbry. In its
NE. corner rose the newel-stair, a recess for a lamp

[illustration inserted]
Fig. 410. Colmslie Tower (No. 572).

being conveniently placed in the N. wall close by.
The W. apartment was evidently a living-room and
had two good windows facing S. Its fireplace is in
the W. gable, the gable and the N. wall both con-
taining recesses for furniture. The second floor has
a single fireplace in the E. gable and may therefore
have been a single room ; on the other hand it may
have been divided into two or more apartments by
a light partition. Each gable contains a small window
and each of the side walls had two larger windows,
three of these windows having had stone seats. All
the rear-arches are segmental. Between the two S.
windows are a mural chamber and a garderobe, the
latter having a flue descending within the thickness
of the S. wall.
The tower is built of rubble roughly brought to
courses, but the quoins have been of freestone. The
windows also have freestone dressings, heavily
chamfered.
The property is said to take its name from a chapel
dedicated to St. Columba which stood in the " Chapel
field " N. of the tower.1 Together with most of the
land in the valley of the Allan, or Elwyn, it was owned
by Melrose Abbey, and before the Reformation was
tenanted by the family of Cairncross. William
Carncors de Cowmislie is mentioned in a charter of
1536 ; 2 he was succeeded before 1556 by his son
Robert, and his grandson William was laird in 1578.
A later Robert Carncors de Cummislie is on record
in 1587,3 and another William in 1594 and 1606.4
About the middle of the 17th century a family of
Pringle was in possession.
513396 -- N iv. -- 15 June 1933.

573. Buckholm Tower. This tower-house,
which dates from the last quarter of the 16th century
and has only recently become ruinous, stands at Old
Buckholm on the W. side of Buckholm Hill, over-
looking Gala Water. It has been attached to a
rectangular barmkin, of which only the SW. corner
now survives although the surviving stretch of the
S. wall of enclosure is sufficiently well preserved to
show the entrance, a wide gateway with semicircular
arch-head, moulded with a quirked edge-roll and
surmounted by a hood-mould. Above the gateway
there has been a bartizan carried on a plain corbel-
course. Inside the W. jamb there is a large bar-hole,
the other jamb showing the three iron crooks on
which the gate was hung. Within the enclosure and
immediately adjoining the entrance there is a ruinous
outbuilding. A plan is given in Fig. 411 and illus-
trations in Figs. 399 and 400.
The tower itself has a main block, three storeys
and an attic in height, measuring 35 ft. from N. to S.
by 23 ft. 2 in. from E. to W., and a short wing,

[illustration inserted]
Fig. 411. Buckholm Tower (No. 573).

measuring 11 ft. 9 in. by 4 ft. 7 in., which projects
E. in alinement with the N. gable and contains the
staircase. The tower projects W. from the barmkin,

1 T.H.A.S., 1902, 44.
2 R.M.S., 1513-46, No. 1647.
3 Ibid., 1580-93, No. 1253.
4 Ibid., 1593-1608, Nos. 251, 1750.

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