In 2000 the author of this book published his well-received Border Towers of Scotland: their history and architecture – the West March, in which he gave detailed descriptions of ninety towers across much of the West March, with summaries of the family histories of those who occupied them and illustrated by large numbers of his own excellent photographs and measured drawings. There had been a general expectation that he would move on to give the towers of the Middle and East Marches the same in-depth treatment. Instead he has chosen to consider the whole of the Scottish Borders, thus covering some of the same ground as before, but weaving accounts of the individual buildings into a series of continuous narratives and concentrating on the architecture rather than the family histories of their builders and occupants.

A short introductory section offers an account of what are termed ‘the earliest defensive towers’, though this is perhaps too brief and all-embracing to be altogether persuasive, moving as it does from the early cities of Asia Minor to the round towers of Ireland within the space of seven pages. The rest of the book is divided into two parts, and the author enters altogether more certain home territory with the first chapter of part one, which covers what he terms ‘the great tower-house castles’ built from the fourteenth century, following the Wars of Independence, up to the disaster of Flodden in 1513. Illustrated by ninety carefully chosen text figures, including many of his own fine plans and a helpful selection of early views, and with twenty-three pages of plates, the accounts of nearly fifty towers add significantly to our understanding of these buildings. The second chapter, which is the longest in the book, covers ‘the lesser towers of the 16th century’. It discusses the period from the recovery that eventually came after Flodden up to the enforcement of greater order on the unruly Debatable Land following the union of the Crowns in the person of James vi and i in 1603. The author makes the point that even quite modest land-holders were now expected to provide themselves with ‘ane tour’ for their families and tenants, especially after this was legislated for in 1535.

Those first two chapters occupy almost half of the book, covering the ground that the author rightly considers deserves the closest attention. The rest of the first part consists of four brief chapters: urban strongholds; bastles, pele-houses and peles; the seventeenth century and later; and restoration and conservation. One of those chapters that will leave many readers wishing for more of the author’s insights is that on bastles and pele-houses, many of which were probably built in response to the act of 1535; the author defines these as ‘“strong” farmhouses with integral cattle-sheds’. There are, of course, long-standing differences of definition of these types on the two sides of the Border, but for the purposes of his discussion the author usefully defines the former as being normally of no more than two storeys, the lower being stone-vaulted, while the latter were generally unvaulted and built of clay-bonded masonry.

The second part consists of a single heavily illustrated chapter entitled ‘Architectural and Other Features’; it occupies more than a third of the book and the present reviewer found it a fascinating feast of food for thought. Opening with a discussion of masonry, it moves on to consider many of the component elements that are to be found in these buildings, and that provide much of their diagnostic evidence. It is perhaps a pity that the courtyards of ancillary buildings that were invariably associated with these towers, and that are appositely described by the author as ‘the bustling community of men and animals’, are relegated to a short section on ‘barmkins’ in this chapter. While it is understandable why the author followed this course, such summary coverage perhaps gives a hostage to those who insist that towers should not be considered in isolation.

There has been a recent resurgence of interest in Scottish fortified residences, and much good work has been achieved, although it must be conceded that there has also been a strand of eccentric dogmatism, occasionally coloured by nationalism, that has tended to cloud a number of issues. Indeed, it has been argued by some that there is no such category as the ‘tower-house’. Alastair Maxwell-Irving’s work has for long stood out as a beacon of what can be achieved through painstakingly methodical research based on deep personal commitment and inherent good sense. This latest book is an invaluable contribution to the detailed understanding of a coherent and geographically discrete grouping of buildings.