Undiscovered Scotland

 

Alloa Tower is one of the largest surviving tower houses in Scotland and stands just to the south of the centre of the town of Alloa in Clackmannanshire.

Given how imposing the tower seems today, it comes as something of a surprise to find that it was only a part of an elaborate complex that once stood here and included an adjoining grand house and extensive pleasure grounds. It is said that the foundations of the grand house are still extant, buried beneath the open area to the south of the tower. It’s a shame these have not been unearthed and consolidated, giving a true sense of what once stood here.

Today there is just the tower, though this is well worth travelling to see, offering a series of impressive rooms at different levels. A particular highlight is the way the grand staircase sweeps up to first floor level where it gives access to one end of the laigh hall. Access to the upper levels of the tower is via a rather less grand spiral staircase set within the thickness of the wall. At rooftop level a walkway offers extensive views in all directions. (Continues below images...)

 

The origins of Alloa Tower date back to the 1300s and its story revolves around that of one of Scotland’s most distinguished families, the Erskines, Earls of Mar. The Erskines were granted Alloa (and other estates in the area) by King David II in about 1360 when he made them the hereditary keepers of Stirling Castle. It was the Erskine family who first built a castle here, at the end of the 1300s or the beginning of the 1400s. The Alloa Tower you see today was built in the late 1400s, probably incorporating parts of its predecessor. It was visited by Mary Queen of Scots and her son, James VI, received some of his education here.

By the late 1600s the tower formed the focus of a much larger collection of buildings, though a fire in 1672 destroyed a house adjoining it. In the early 1700s John Erskine, 6th Earl of Mar, incorporated the tower into a large mansion and surrounded it with a landscape modelled on the formal gardens at Hampton Court and Versailles. The result was one of the most impressive palaces in Scotland. At the same time, he invested in new coal mines on his estates and a harbour at Alloa, doing much to boost the industrial revolution in this part of Scotland.

The grand house burned down in 1800, leaving only the tower, which was saved by local people blocking access between the two parts of the building with wet turf. In the 1830s the family built Alloa House a little distance to the east, but this was demolished only four decades later: according to once source after yet another fire.

The tower itself was left empty after the 1800 fire, largely abandoned until a preservation trust was formed in 1988, leading to it opening to the public for the first time in 1996.

You enter Alloa Tower via a surprisingly unassuming door in its north-west face, which takes you into the entrance hall. The grand staircase described above takes you up to the laigh hall, and gives access to a minstrels’ gallery in the circular space created for the staircase. The staircase effectively forms one end of the hall which, as a result, is hardly a cosy space, though it is certainly an impressive one. Here you find evidence of the Erskines’ strong links with royalty, including what is said to be the high chair of the future James VI.

The main space on the floor above is the charter room, originally the upper part of the double-height great hall but later added as a study and store for documents. The next floor up is home to a more traditional hall and amongst the objects on display is a large model showing changes proposed (but not implemented) to the tower and grand house in 1728. More stairs lead you up to a corner of the roof, and the superb views mentioned above.