The basement barrel vault of Kyloe Tower, Kyloe. Photo by Peter Ryder.

(NU 05913975) Kyloe Tower (Remains of). (1)

The tower is first mentioned c.1450 and in 1560 is described as in good repair. it was still inhabited in 1633, but has since fallen into decay. In its original form, it consisted of a square tower standing in the north-west corner of a small courtyard, the outline of which, to the east and south, may still be traced, although obscured by modern farm buildings. (2)

Now in ruins, see photographs. The outline of the barmkin is no longer discernible. (3)

Kyloe Pele Tower, 40ft x 30ft walls, 7ft thick, 15ft high, built of good ashlar blocks. Arrow slits in round headed embrasure, in east and west walls of basement. That in east wall has been turned into an entrance. The fine stone vault is intact. There is a blocked newel stair in south-west angle with a pointed arched door-way. (4)

Kyloe Tower lies amongst the buildings of East Kyloe Farm. It is abutted by farm buildings on the south and hemmed in closely by a modern shed on the west, to the north and east it is partly concealed by vegetation. The lower part of a tower is first mentioned c.1450 and described as in good repair in 1560. The tower is 10m by 11.7m externally, the longer axis east-west, with walls c.2.5m thick faced in good quality squared stone. There is a chamfered plinth and a chamfered set-back at first floor level. The original entrance, at the west end of the south wall, is now concealed externally by 19th century farmbuildings. The present access is through a ragged opening in the centre of the east wall, an enlargement of an original loop. The basement is covered by a well-built barrel vault. At the level of the springing of the vault there have been four corbels on each side (one of the southern ones is broken away) possibly to carry the timbers of some kind of loft.
The entrance lobby at the south west corner has a chamfered doorway with a two-centred arch opening into the main basement and a doorway with a canted three sided head on the west, giving on to the foot of a newel stair. The south wall of the stair is the only part of the tower to stand above first floor level and has two square headed loop windows.
Old accounts refer to a rectangular yard or barmkin with the tower at its north west corner. There is now no clear evidence of this, except for a single block of projecting footing at the north end of the east wall of the tower.
Despite being hemmed in by farmbuildings, this is a well preserved specimen of the basement of a 14th or 15th century tower. It is now capped by soil and vegetation. The newel stair is almost buried in soil and the higher fragment of the south west angle covered in ivy. (5)

Scheduled. (6)

A photogrammetric survey of the building was carried out in 2007 as part of a wider proposed repair plan. (7)

Archaeological recording and monitoring took place in 2009 during conservation works at East Kyloe Tower. Works comprised recording of the four elevations after removal of vegetation; excavation of a test pit above basement vault; investigation of the basement vault roof and the basement itself; and monitoring of consolidation and conservation process.
The basement vault is very well preserved and test trenches identified a clay floor below the present dump of rubble. The wallhead of the south elevation was dismantled and rebuilt during conservation works and this revealed an original stone spout together with what looks like a grotesque (or face). (8)

East Kyloe tower (formerly listed as Kyloe Pele Tower). Grade II.
Tower. Probably C14. Squared stone. Standing to c.15ft, i.e. to top of ground floor. South side stands c.10ft higher. C.36ft square.
Slit window on west side. Another slit window on east side now enlarged and part of much later entrance. Original door blocked and covered by farm buildings on south side. Interior: Walls 8ft thick. Tunnel vault with corbels for former flooring. Deep splays to both slit windows. Remains of newel stair, in thickness of wall in SW corner, has small pointed tunnel-vaulted antechamber and one doorway with truncated triangular head; the other doorway has pointed arch. (9a)

NU 059 397. Kyloe pele tower. Scheduled No ND/11. (9b)

Listed by Cathcart King and Dodds. (9c-d)