Page:The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth century (1887) - Volume 2.djvu/44

FOURTH PERIOD 28 HALLBAR TOWER story are also unusual. The battlements are on two sides only, a small oriel projected on corbels occupying the south gable (Fig. 495), while FIG. 495. Hallbar Tower. View from the South -West. the north gable is designed so as to form a dovecot. The nests are formed in the face of the wall (Fig. 494), and the dovecot was enclosed with a wooden brattice supported on beams projected from the wall, in the form of an ancient hoarding. Such an erection might of course also be used for defence, and the supply of food obtainable in the dovecot would no doubt be useful in case of a blockade. The tower was acquired by Sir George Lockhart of Lee about 1662, and it has since continued in the possession of the Lee family, by whom it is kept in good preservation. It was carefully restored and re-roofed a few years ago, under the superintendence, we believe, of Dr. Rankin of Carluke.