What is recorded here

Smailholm Tower is a compact stone fortress perched on a rocky crag in the Scottish Borders, built in the 15th century for the Pringle family and later rebuilt by the Scotts of Harden. English soldiers raided it repeatedly during the 1540s, carrying off cattle and prisoners, yet it survived to become a museum where thick basalt walls and a carved fireplace face still mark the boundary between domestic life and border warfare.

Scotland's National Record of the Historic Environment records Smailholm Tower as Barmkin (medieval), Tower House (medieval). The official map says its point is accurate as follows: NGR given to the nearest 1m. The record does not by itself mean that the public may enter the place.

Smailholm Tower was built by the Scotts of Smailholm in the late 15th or early 16th century. It is important as a well-preserved example of a Scottish border tower house and is associated with the historical Scott-English border conflicts.

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