Whytbank Tower

I went for a six mile walk with my walking club today, the longest since my operation in the autumn and my hip stood up to it well, I'm delighted to say. It was great to be out again and the wind certainly blew away all my cobwebs!

Whytbank Tower would have been built as a fortified dwelling, and there are a large number of this kind of tower in the Scottish Borders, some in ruins, some inhabited. This tower has been in the ownership of the Pringle family (of knitwear fame) since the thirteenth century (presumably since it was first built). It was rebuilt from 1987 to 1992 but sadly Mary-Jean Mitchell Green (a member of the Pringle family) who planned the project did not live to see it through as she died in 1990 at the age of 38. From the outside it looked fit to be inhabited but the interior was a bit of a building site, so maybe it's still a work in progress.