February 2 2024

A sixteenth-century tower house has been rescued from a slow decay by the Landmark Trust.

Fairburn Tower in Muir of Ord, Easter Ross, was built around 1545 and is considered a rare example of the Scottish Renaissance for remaining largely unaltered since - but for the addition of an 18th-century stair tower.

Lying forgotten since the late nineteenth century, when it was reduced to a roofless shell, the tower house has been brought back to life by Simpson & Brown and Narro.

The design team first worked to stabilise the structure by shoring up surviving masonry with fully reversible interventions, eliminating the risk of further collapse and permitting a full refurbishment.

Outlining how a reintroduced staircase underpins the entire scheme Narro wrote: "The main challenge to the project from a structural point of view was the stabilisation of the stair turret. This turret was visibly coming away from the main building, with wide gaps appearing between its walls and that of the main tower. In addition, large cracks existed within the actual walls of the turret, indicating that the walls themselves were coming apart.

"Narro’s approach sought to use the replacement staircase within the turret as the structural spine to the structure, knitting itself into the parent fabric and locking it back to the main building. Reinforced concrete was adopted for the construction of the staircase, as this amorphous material could be cast to fit exactly within the distorted volume of the space and the whole be constructed in a reasonably simple way. The eventual construction is a wonderful sculptural element that is testament to the skill and attention to detail of the contractor that built it."

Images are shown courtesy of Roddy Ritchie for the Landmark Trust.

6 Comments

#1 Posted by Lovely on 2 Feb 2024 at 15:01 PM

Very nice job.

#2 Posted by Nairn's Bairn on 2 Feb 2024 at 16:03 PM

What a beautiful building - great to see it restored.

#3 Posted by Nairn's Bairn on 2 Feb 2024 at 16:11 PM

You can now rent the place from the Landmark Trust.

The work was completed a year ago and it's proved popular as you can imagine - its fully booked this year.

Photo of how it was can be seen at www.ambaile.org.uk/asset/11446

#4 Posted by Michael on 2 Feb 2024 at 17:29 PM

Lovely project, congratulations.

This tower reminds me of the multiple tower houses that dot Aberdeenshire, specifically at the foot of Bennachie. A number of these - Pitfichie, Harthill and Leslie castles - were restored by Master Stonemason Slessor Troup, who I read with sadness this week passed away a few weeks ago.

#5 Posted by James Hepburn on 5 Feb 2024 at 12:59 PM

That's great news! Too much of our heritage has been squandered especially here in Glasgow by GCC.

#6 Posted by Glasgow Bob on 6 Feb 2024 at 05:40 AM

#5 true. Glasgow council has shamefully ignored the built heritage. Spending money on people with social care, alcohol addiction services, drug services for those dumped on them by other councils and general social deprivation since they've had to start from a low level...

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