Clackmannan Tower
I managed to book a slot during the Doors Open Days for Clackmannan Tower. Part of European Heritage Days, the Doors Open is a national programme, encouraging folk to visit places of cultural and historical interest and to promote the excellent and vital ongoing work to preserve these sites. Places tend to go quickly, especially for those sites that are rarely open to the public. You can visit the tower at any time, and walk around it, but it remains closed for most of the year. I’ve never been inside the tower until now, so I was looking forward to it.
Like many structures, it has gone through changes, some by design, and some by neglect and disrepair. I didn’t know it was possible to climb to the top and get out onto the roof to take in the magnificent view so this was a real bonus. All credit to the efforts made to maintain the building and get it to a point where we can enter safely. The tower is bare inside, completely unfurnished, so you need to use your imagination to conjure images of how it would have looked centuries ago.
The tower is a five-storey structure on King’s Seat Hill. It is believed to date from the 14th century though there could have been an earlier residence at this spot. I note from the Historic Environment website that, a royal residence may have occupied this site during the reign of Malcolm IV in 1053 to 1056. A castle of Clackmannan is mentioned in a royal charter from the 1200s. I’ve found a date of around 1365 for the building of the first tower with the second probably in the 1400’s. King David II of Scotland – the son of Robert the Bruce – lived here and he later sold the tower to his cousin Robert Bruce, 2nd Baron of Clackmannan in 1359. The Bruce’s remained until the late 1700’s, with the mansion that had been constructed alongside the tower in the late 1500’s, being demolished in the early 1800’s. I’m struck how vague some of the historical detail is surrounding this site, with wide estimates of when key events occurred in the tower’s history.
One particular event that is known with accuracy is the visit by Robert Burns on August 26th 1787. Katherine Bruce was living in the tower (she died in 1791). When Burns was there, she mock-knighted him using the sword of her ancestor, Robert the Bruce.
The view from the top of the surrounding Forth Valley is magnificent. If you know where to look you can spot Castle Campbell, the Wallace Monument, and Stirling Castle among other sites, and take in a good view of the Forth as it winds its way across the countryside.
On the way back, I visited Clackmannan Parish Church and took a walk around the graveyard which dates from the 17th century. The church is in the Gothic style and dates from 1815, and was built on the site of an earlier 13th century church.
The Fiction Factory 