Tower house

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Clononey castle in Co. Offaly, Ireland

A tower house stands on a hillock near Quin along the beside the R469 back road from Limerick to Ennis.

Neidpath Castle near Peebles in Scotland.

A tower house is a particular type of stone dwelling, built for defensive purposes as well as habitation. Such buildings were constructed in the wilder parts of Great Britain, particularly the Scottish Borders, and throughout Ireland, beginning in the Middle Ages and continuing at least up to the 17th century. The remains of such structures are dotted around the Irish and Scottish countryside. Some are still intact and even inhabited today, while others stand as mere shells in a field or on a hillside.

Tower houses are often called castles, and despite their characteristic diminutive footprint size, they are formidable habitations and there is no clear distinction between a castle and a tower house. Moreover, some structures are characterized as tower houses which are in the L Plan Castle style, such as the original layout of Muchalls Castle in Scotland.

The few surviving round Scottish iron age towers known as Brochs and the remains of numerous duns indicate that the idea of tower houses goes back at least two thousand years.

See also: Keep

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