# Twizel Castle, Scotish Border



## Marley85 (Jul 11, 2009)

Hello guys, tell me what you think.

Medieval tower house incorporated into a ruined C18 folly. The ruins comprise a roofless rectangular building of ashlar and squared stone, 29m by 9.5m, standing two storeys high with two wings on the north side and circular towers at each corner. Internally, there are four vaulted rooms along the south front, all of fine ashlar construction. The wings and towers are part of an incomplete C18 folly, built over 50 years from about 1770 by Sir Francis Blake with the assistance of James Nesbit of Kelso. It is considered to have been an example of Gothic Revivalism. The topographer Raine commented acidly that instead of the old pele tower there now stood "an unseemly mass of unfinished masonry...possesing no one single feature of castellated architecture save for that it is in the shape of a parallogram with wide pointed mullionless windows and a huge disproportionate round bastion at each corner". It originally stood five storeys high and was stone or brick-vaulted throughout as a precaution against fire. At the core of the building is a medieval house with walls about 1.5m thick whose structure is partly revealed in the collapse of the north wall. Several pre-folly features are visible in the north wall and include blocked windows, a chamfered doorway and original north east angle quoins. The castle was first recorded in 1415 as the castle of 'Twysill' held by Sir John Heron, but it was destroyed by the Scots in 1496 and abandoned. A survey made in 1561 notes 'there has been one tower, or pele, which is of ancient time decayed and cast down, and there remains one part or quarter thereof, and a barmkin about it. 












































Thanks for looking


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## Vintage (Jul 11, 2009)

Some great pics. is this North East borders (around Northumberland) or further West?


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## Sabtr (Jul 11, 2009)

Nice one mate. 

I've heard of this place so many times but never visited. Some nice stonework going on in there.

Looks like the place could do with a strim though!

Thanks for posting.


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## jonney (Jul 11, 2009)

Nice place, again I've heard of it but couldn't tell you where it is. Some of the stonework is from the west of the country by the looks and colour of it. Predominantly the East coast stone is a creamy colour and the West coast stone is a pinky/red colour. Thanks for sharing


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## Marley85 (Jul 12, 2009)

Thanks for replying its on the north east border of scotland. you right the place could do with a trim. to be fair the place wasnt that hard to find literally a hour and a half drve from blyth.


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## Black Shuck (Jul 12, 2009)

That really is a beautiful place Marley. Is that something like a crypt in the last few pics?


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## Marley85 (Jul 12, 2009)

To be honest mate I couldnt tell ya, the last few picture were taken on the roof which was a nother room or three you can see there were probable volted ceiling in the past long gone now though.


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## tweeddale (Jul 19, 2009)

It is close to the A698 and the historicTwizel bridge. There is a story that deterioration was severely aggrevated by the railways "robbing" dressed stone for their viaduct half a mile away. 
There is also contention about its history http://northumberland-cam.com/castles/twizel-castle/index.htm 
A pic from long ago http://communities.northumberland.gov.uk/006774FS.htm
Hope this is of use.


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## Dirus_Strictus (Jul 21, 2009)

tweeddale said:


> It is close to the A698 and the historicTwizel bridge. There is a story that deterioration was severely aggrevated by the railways "robbing" dressed stone for their viaduct half a mile away.
> There is also contention about its history



The story about the stone is probably true, this practise being very common in earlier less enlightened times.
As for the history mentioned in the Northumberland-cam link - This appears to be rather confusing as it does not state what the original 1312 building, used as the 'core' of the 18C construction, actually was. Because of the vegetation, even if you visit the site it is very difficult to to distinguish the differing construction methods used over the centuries.


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