Jun 3, '07 5:22 PM
for loretta's contacts
Another day dawns with the dreaded harle swirling around my garden, this is low lying cloud taken to extreme. My poor dog got lost in its murky mist. Poor wee thing, she only has one eye to start with, and that eye doesn't see too well at the best of times so submerge her in this particularly Scottish weather phenomena and she doesn't stand a chance. You wouldn't think my garden was big enough to get lost in even for a half blind, partially deaf and increasingly senile dog, you'd be wrong, she did. Low lying cloud be dammed, cause of mortal danger to small unsuspecting dogs in its path.
Heard a small piece about Elcho Castle on the radio today, reminded me of my visit there last year. Not the most well known of Scotland's little treasures but totally wonderful place to visit. It's quite well hidden, not that easy to find, not that well signposted and very easily missed!! Worth finding though.
www.undiscoveredscotland.co.uk/perth/elchocastle
NB Warning!! Alert!!, please don't do as I did and go rushing up the many narrow stairs and then hang over the top of the highest tower to take pictures IF, as I was, you are accompanied by an asthmatic who gets vertigo at anything over first floor level!! ...... oops silly, silly me.
What can I say, another of Scotland's beautiful Tower Houses. As Red Castle must be one of the most ruinous tower house left, Elcho Castle is one of the most intact and original. Elcho Castle has stairs, floors, passageways, vaulted basements, everything in its original state with the exception of the roof and windows which were replaced in the 1830's. The building of this Tower House is thought to have started round about 1550, once all the lands of Elcho had been consolidated under the ownership of the Wemyss family. The Castle was the main residence of the Wemyss family. The first record of the land of Elcho is in the 'Register of the Great Seal' when Easter Elcho was granted by James III to John of Wemyss, BUT, there is mention of a 'place of strength' called 'Elkok' in Blind Harry's epic tale 'Wallace'. It is thought that this was some sort of earlier structure that stood on the site of or close to where Elcho Castle stands today. There is no exact parallel to Elcho in any other Tower House in Scotland, it incorporates round towers, square towers, some genuinely defensive elements and some decorative elements of castle architecture. It was built just at the beginning of the period when country houses were springing up in the traditional 'Castle' style, but with many of the defensive elements of the older castles imitated as decorative rather than functional elements. The skyline of this building is fascinating, it has round corbelled turrets, square corbelled turrets and aspects of European architecture blended with traditional Scottish architecture all to produce a very distinctive skyline . When it was built it was of the 'latest fashion'; rather than having an external stairway to the first floor that could be removed if under attack, as was the fashion in earlier defensive Tower Houses, Elcho has a grand stone stairway running from the ground floor to the grand hall on the first floor.
Think what I would like to do is to visit first Red Castle, then Edzell Castle and finally Elcho Castle, it would be like visiting a building site and seeing Tower Houses under different stages of construction, only of course in reality they are at different stages of decomposition. Buildings like these you can 'read', it's like peeling an onion and looking inside at the different sages of build. Fascinating, or it this just my rather unique way of looking at things.
Elcho, a totally fascinating, amazing, interesting and absolutely 'worth a visit' piece of Scottish history.
Tags: 360 import, environment, elcho castle, scotland, architecture
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