Merchiston Castle

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Merchiston Tower as it appeared in 1829, showing the addition to the front made by the Merchiston Castle School, which occupied it at that time.

Images of Merchiston Tower as it appeared in 1883, after renovations done by the Merchiston Castle School.

Merchiston Castle or Merchiston Tower was probably built by Alexander Napier, the second Laird of Merchiston around 1454. It serves as the seat for Clan Napier. It is perhaps most notable for being the home of John Napier, the 8th Laird of Merchiston, inventor of logarithms who was born there in 1550.

[edit] History

The lands surrounding the castle were acquired in 1438 by Alexander Napier, the first Laird of Merchiston, and remained in the Napier family for most of the following five centuries.

Merchiston Castle was probably built as a country house, but its strategic position and the turbulent political situation required it to be heavily fortified - with some walls as much as six feet thick - and it was frequently under siege. During restoration in the 1960s a twenty-six pound cannon-ball was found embedded in the Tower, thought to date from the struggle in 1572 between Mary, Queen of Scots, and supporters of her son, James VI.

In 1833, the Tower was let to Charles Chalmers, who founded the Merchiston Castle School. It was sold outright to the school in 1914 by The Honourable John Scott Napier, fourteenth Laird of Merchiston. The school vacated the building in 1930, moving to a site some three miles away. The property passed first to The Merchant Company in 1930, and then to the Edinburgh City Council in 1935, and remained unoccupied (except for war service) until 1956 when it was suggested as the centerpiece of a new technical college. Restoration work began in 1958, highlights of which were the discovery of the entrance drawbridge and the preservation of an original seventeenth century plaster ceiling.

It now stands at the center of Napier University’s Merchiston campus.

[edit] Design

The Tower is an interesting and elaborate example of the medieval tower house, being built on the familiar "L" plan with a wing projecting to the north. It was originally vaulted at the second floor and the roof. Among several remarkable features is the unusual elaboration of the main entrance, which is at second floor level in the south front. The tall shallow recess in which the doorway is set undoubtedly housed a drawbridge which must have rested upon an outwork some 14 feet above ground level and 10 feet from the Tower.

Shortly after being let to Merchiston Castle School it was considerably altered with the addition of a castellated Gothic-style two-story extension (see picture) and a basement.