The castle, Clackmannan Tower, stands at the summit of King's
Seat Hill in open fields some way clear of the uphill edge of the
town itself. What you find is a magnificent tower house built of
golden stone, five storeys high. It was built by David II in the
1300s before being sold to a relative, Robert Bruce, in 1359.
A royal hunting lodge was mentioned as being here in the 13th
century: this might well have been built of timber. The site
belonged to the Bruce family from 1359 to 1796, having been sold to
them by their kinsman David II.
The first tower was built c1365 as a two-storey house by a
member of the Bruce family on the summit of King’s Seat Hill,
an important strategic site overlooking the Forth valley and all
the land around. The original entrance was at first floor level and
was reached by an external staircase.
In the 15th century the building was raised to tower height and
the taller, square south tower was constructed. This created an
L-plan structure with a crenellated parapet or wall walk supported
on machicolations (alternate holes in the stonework said to be
useful for pouring nasty substances down onto attackers!)
A turnpike stair was inserted in the re-entrant angle and there
was an entrance at ground level. Only the top of this stair
survives, as the lower part was removed to allow the construction
of a wider scale-and-platt stair to the first floor.
Both the basements are vaulted, as are the first floors. The
hall on the first floor has a fine 16th century fireplace. On the
third floor is a long narrow gallery entered through one of the
window recesses.
A mansion with crowstep gables and turrets was built to the
south-west of the tower in the late 16th century. It was gradually
demolished in the early 19th century and nothing survives now. In
the late 17th century a new entrance court, walled and protected by
a moat, to the east, with a new doorway into the tower embellished
with a decorated pediment, were all built.
The Bruce family went bankrupt in 1708 and Henry Bruce fought
for the Jacobites in the 1745 uprising. His widow, Lady Catherine
Bruce, lived in the mansion until her death in 1791, when the tower
and house were abandoned. On 26th August 1787 she knighted Robert
Burns with the sword of Robert Bruce. There are fragments of a
courtyard wall and traces of a garden terrace and a bowling
green.
Clackmannan Tower has been in the guardianship of what is now
Historic Scotland since the 1950s, by which time subsidence due to
mine workings had caused major structural collapse.
Historic Scotland has undertaken extensive repairs to preserve
the tower and is committed to increasing public access within the
next few years. The parapet walk has now been restored.
Information for this cache was taken
from
Clackmannanshire Website
