Duddo Tower. Photo by Northumberland County Council.

(NT 93804259) Duddo Tower [L.B.] remains of [T.I.]. (1)

Duddo Tower, no more than one crag of a wall. It seems to have been built early 17th century. A predecessor was destroyed in 1496. (2)

Scheduled. (3)

Only the remains of the south-west angle survive. The foundations of a rectangular building to the south-east and the mutilated remains of some southern banks also seen in the vicinity. Published survey (25 inch) revised. (4)

Condition unchanged, and published survey (25 inch) correct. Some of the banks are obvious field banks. See annotated 25 inch. (5)

Duddo Tower, Grade II.
Ruined strong house. Late 16th century. The south-west corner and about 12ft of the South wall stand to c.30ft. Chamfered plinth. Square window at c.20ft. Walls c.5ft thick. (6)

The sole remnant of Duddo Tower today is a solitary finger of masonry above the village of Duddo. James IV of Scotland destroyed a tower at Duddo when he invaded England in the autumn of 1496. A piece of this tower remained standing in 1541 and it had not been repaired before 1561 when half of it was stated to be left, with a barmkin around it. The present ruin is thought to be a tower of later 16th century date, probably post dating the 1584 report of the Border Commissioners. The consisted of a square or rectangular block with a square wing or
jamb, containing the entrance and a stair, projecting from the south front. Bates gives the dimensions of the tower as c.10.9m square with the wing being 2.7m wide and of c.3.1m projection, set at a distance of 5m from the south west corner of the tower.
The remaining fragment consists of the south west corner of the main body of the tower and a little of the south wall. It is constructed of coursed roughly squared stone with large cut quoins. There is a chamfered plinth. In the south wall is a square window at first floor level, with a chamfered surround and the remains of a second floor window above. Its head has fallen and the remaining jambs and sill are in an area of wall on the brink of collapse. At the south west angle of the tower a few stones remain of a projecting course that seems to have formed the base of the parapet. The base of the fragment is built around with 19th century masonry to prevent its collapse, but there appears to be an original internal set-back marking the level of the first floor. A few metres to the south east are some large pieces of fallen amsonry, the last remnants of the projecting turret.
Slight indications beneath the turf - there is no more exposed masonry in situ - suggest that the body of the tower was c.12m by 10m in size.
Further information on the tower can be gained from old photographs and a published description (Bates). A later 19th century photograph shows the tower from the south east with the stair wing standing virtually to full height, although its south wall is riven by a crack from top to bottom. The entrance doorway is in the east face of the turret and has a flattened triangular arch within a square frame. A metre or so above it is a segmental headed opening (without cut dressings) which Bates states 'was no doubt for an armorial panel' although it has the appearance of being a quenching hole of the type found in some bastles. A quadrant plan turret is corbelled out in the angle between the east wall of the turret and the south wall of the
tower with an elaborately moulded base and a square headed window looking south east. Bates stated that it was entered 'off the main wheel stair at third floor level'. The south wall of the tower is shown as broken down short of its east end and supported by a 19th century buttress much like that built on to the present fragment. Bates also cites a reference to a 'very old barn-like building' which stood near the tower 'on the very verge of the rock' and was removed c.1850. (7)

The scheduling for this monument was amended to SM31707 on 16-APRIL-1999. (8)

NT 938 426. Duddo Tower (remains of). Scheduled No ND/390. (9a)

A tower was built at Duddo shortly after 1415, but was destroyed in James IV's raid of 1496. It had not been repaired by 1561, although it was repaired afterwards and a barmkin added. Now ruinous. (9b)