Hillslap Tower Melrose, Scotland

Text courtesy of Historic Environment Scotland. © Crown Copyright, reprinted under the Open Government License.

Hillslap is a fine example of a restored 16th century tower-house in the Scottish Borders. The main body of the tower retains a significant degree of its early fabric. Window mouldings, gun-loops, fireplaces and barrel-vaulted storeroom to ground all add to its architectural and historic interest. The late 20th and early 21st century gatehouse additions make use of comparable stone materials, complementing the restored tower. Hillslap is one of three 16th century towers sited in close proximity on Allen Water in the Glendearg area of Melrose Parish (the others being Colmslie and Langshaw, both Scheduled Monuments). Hillslap has a number of parallels with the neighbouring contemporary Buckholm Tower of 1582 (see separate listing) including the unusual absence of freestone quoins despite the wide use of sandstone dressings elsewhere, and the partitioned barrel-vaulted store-room to ground, suggesting the hand of the same mason in the design of both buildings. The main body of the tower was carefully restored from a former shell between the years of 1978 and 1995 by the owner/architect, Philip Mercer for use as a family residence. His 2-storey gatehouse addition incorporates the roll-moulded jambs of an earlier gateway excavated on the site in 1983-4, at which time evidence of an earlier barmkin abutting the NW wing of the tower was also uncovered. A further addition dated 2002 extends the gatehouse to the W, terminating in a circular library outshot. As part of the wider tableau, the architect has created a steep rubble-built humpbacked bridge over the reinstated pond on the approch drive to the tower, adding drama to the tower's setting Hillslap, previously known as Calfhill, was formerly part of the Appletreeleaves estate. The tower was sketched as a roofless shell in 1821 by Sir David Erskine. Shot holes within its walls were discussed by Maxwell-Irving for the Proceedings of the Society of Antiquities in 1971. Hillslap is referred to in Sir Walter Scott's 1867 edition of The Monastery as a 'ruinous mansion-house'. In his introduction, Scott refutes the suggestion that Hillslap, Colmslie and Langshaw towers provided the inspiration for his fictional Glendearg House in that story. List description updated at resurvey (2010).