Westquarter Doocot

Amazing what one finds (almost) on one's doorstep, especially when I didn't even know of its existence until Monday afternoon.

Decided that I wanted to go somewhere relatively local for my daily blip as I didn't have much free time, but not somewhere that I'd visited recently. Had a browse around the Historic Scotland website and found an entry for Westquarter Dovecote - Westquarter being just the other side of Falkirk from where I live. Couldn't believe I'd not heard of it before!

Anyway a short drive over there to find this astonishing little structure, dating from possibly the 17th, but more likely the 18th, century.

The information board states that "This dovecote [a dovecote, or doocot in Scots, is a pigeon loft] originally belonged to Old Westquarter House, a mansion built in the middle of the Seventeenth Century by Sir William Livingstone of Westquarter and demolished two centuries later.
Above the door are the arms of Livingstone of Westquarter and the initials SWL and DHL, standing for Sir William Livingstone and Dame Helenore Livingstone, his wife. Below the shield is the date 1647, but it is probable that the dovecote was built in the Eighteenth Century and the heraldic shield was then transferred to it, possibly from another earlier dovecote."

A rare wee gem indeed.