Huntingtower Castle

My list of Historic Scotland sites to take the kids to see appears to have suddenly reduced. Partly, this is because we have covered lots of the nearby ones but mainly this is because many of the smaller ones go into hibernation for the Winter. However, there are still lots to see and the latest was quite intriguing.

Huntingtower Castle - two towers for the price of one.

One of the oddities of modern architecture is that domestic homes appear to be getting smaller and more cramped together and yet there is an insistence to make all the houses detached. The problem is that the “detachment” is pretty minimal. I’ve seen cases where there is barely enough space to walk between the buildings and the overall effect looks aesthetically dreadful. It just makes me wonder why they didn’t go for a nice terrace instead – the answer, of course, is that the word “detached” probably adds 20% to the already overinflated asking price.

As it turns out, this is not an entirely new phenomenon as  Huntingtower Castle in Perthshire shows. This is actually two separate towers built right next to each other with just enough space to walk between. However, in another seemingly modern trick, the towers were later joined and the access between them knocked through – similar to the way that many people annex garages as an extra room.

Inside Huntingtower Castle

The castle itself is very well maintained and thankfully (given the weather) the roof is both intact and highly functional. It is possible to get up on to the roof but, like the top of Linlithgow Palace, this is really terrifying for the likes of me and my particular distrust of gravity. Anyway, we are forecast to get the first snow of the year this week so I won’t be risking anywhere high and slippy in a hurry.