Scotland · Ruin
Mangerton Tower
Mangerton Tower is a ruined Scottish tower house that belonged to the Armstrong family, located on the banks of the Liddel Water in Roxburghshire near the England–Scotland border. Only part of the ground floor now survives; historical records note a carved stone panel with a coat of arms and the date 1563 (or possibly 1583). The site stands in open pasture beside a lone mature tree and river valley.
Its prime
1563
Today
Ruin
As it stood in 1563
What Mangerton Tower looked like in its prime.
A multi-storey rectangular stone tower house of rubble masonry, standing on a low grassy mound beside the Liddel Water; walls built of irregular local sandstone blocks with visible dressed stone paneling bearing a carved coat of arms and date. In its prime the tower rose above surrounding pasture and a single prominent tree on the slope, roof and upper floors intact, with the full vertical silhouette of a compact fortified house overlooking the river valley.
Its story
The story of Mangerton Tower.
Mangerton Tower, on the banks of the Liddel Water in Roxburghshire close to the border between England and Scotland, was a house of the Armstrong family. Johnnie Armstrong, brother of Thomas Armstrong, Laird of Mangerton, was the well-known outlaw captured and hanged by James V at Caerlanrig in 1530; Archibald Armstrong, court jester to James VI and I, was a relative of the Mangerton family.
In 1592 the Laird of Mangerton helped the rebel Francis Stewart, 5th Earl of Bothwell. In September 1601 the English border warden Lord Scrope "laid waste" to Mangerton in retaliation for border raids in the aftermath of the murder of Sir John Carmichael, writing to James VI to justify capturing sixteen notorious "rievers and spoilers" at the "stone house of Mangerton".
Whithaugh, just north of Mangerton, was another Armstrong house; the Duke of Lennox started demolishing it and stopped only when the laird yielded. Of the tower itself only part of the ground floor now survives, though historical records note a carved stone panel with a coat of arms and the date 1563, or possibly 1583.
Step inside
5 places to explore in 1563.
The record describes 5 distinct spots at Mangerton Tower, including 1 interior: ground-floor interior. Create your own photoreal reconstruction and explore every one, more scenes means more rooms, more angles, and more of the place to stand in.
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Clans who held Mangerton Tower.
The families that held Mangerton Tower for a decade or more across its history, follow a name to its clan.
Seat of the Armstrong Lairds of Mangerton; Johnnie Armstrong, brother of Laird Thomas, was hanged by James V in 1530.
Nearby
