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Peel towers (spelt Pele towers in England) are small fortified keeps, built along the English and Scottish Borders, intended as watch towers where signal fires could be lit to warn of approaching danger. By an Act of Parliament in 1455 each Peel Tower was required to have an iron basket on its summit and a smoke or fire signal, for day or night use, ready to hand.A line of these towers was built in the 1430s across the Tweed valley from Berwick to its source, as a response to the dangers of invasion from the English Borders . Others were built in Cumberland, Westmorland and Northumberland, and as far south as Lancashire, in response to the threat of attack from the Scots and the Border Reivers.
Apart from their primary purpose as a warning system, these towers were the homes of the Laird s and landlords of the area, who dwelt in then with their families and retainers, while their followers lived in simple huts outside the walls. The towers also provided a refuge so that, when cross-border raiding parties arrived, the whole population of a village could take to the tower and wait for the marauders to depart.
The Peels in Peeblesshire formed an unbroken chain, within sight of one another, from the source of the Tweed down to its mouth at Berwick.
In the upper Tweed valley, going downstream from its source, they were as follows: Fruid, HawkshawAncestral family home of the Porteous family on the River Tweed just two miles southwest of Tweedsmuir in Peeblesshire, Scotland, dating from at least 1439. A fortified tower stood here for hundreds of years, although nothing remains of it now, its site b, Oliver, Polmood, Kingledores, Mossfennan, Wrae, Quarter, Stanhope, Drumelzier, Tinnies, Dreva, Stobo, Dawyck, Easter Happrew, Lyne, Barnes, Caverhill, NeidpathNeidpath Castle is a L-plan rubble built tower, over looking the river Tweed about 1 mile west of Peebles. The castle is open to the public. Neidpath castle saw conflict during the Civil War when it was invested by the Roundheads, and bombarded into submi, PeeblesPeebles is a burgh in the traditional county of Peeblesshire (of which is it the county town), in the Scottish Borders, lying on the River Tweed. Notable buildings in the town include Peebles Old Parish Church and Neidpath Castle. Other local attractions, Horsburgh, Nether Horsburgh, Cardrona, etc.
Peel towers are not usually found in larger places which have a castleThis article describes the fortified buildings. Castle" is also an alternative name for the Rook and the move of castling in chess. The Castle (from the Latin castellum diminutive of castra a military camp, in turn the plural of castrum or watchpost), is, but in smaller settlementA reference to colonization, or the resulting communities. See hamlet (place). A legal term, an agreement resolving disputes. See settlement (law). The process of swapping the consideration for the deeds, shares, securities, or financial instrument once ts. They are often associated with a churchThis article is about the Christian buildings of worship. For other uses of the word, see Church (disambiguation . Stanford University. A church is a building used in Christian worship. See also altar, altar rails, confessional, dome, nave, pew, pulpit, s: for example the pele tower in EmbletonEmbleton is the name of several places in the world: Embleton, County Durham, England Embleton, Cumberland, England Embleton, Northumberland, England Embleton, Perth, Western Australia. is a fine example of a so-called vicarIn the broadest sense, a vicar is anyone who is acting as a substitute or agent for a superior (compare "vicarious"). In this sense, the title is comparable to lieutenant''. Usually the title appears in a number of Christian ecclesiastical contexts, but i's pele and the one at Hulne Priory is in the grounds of the priory. Hawkshaw, ancestral home of the Porteous family at Tweedsmuir in Peeblesshire, a peel tower dating from at least 1439, no longer stands but its site is marked by a cairn.
Nowadays some towers are derelict while others have been converted for use in peacetime; the Embleton tower is now part of the (former) vicarage and that on the Inner Farne is a home to bird wardens. The most obvious conversion needs will include access, which was originally difficult, and the provision of more and larger windows.
