Exploring Overton Tower: A Historic Scottish Bastle Ruin

Located about 6 miles (9.5 km) southeast of Jedburgh, Overton Tower is the ruin of a late 16th-century fortified bastle house. Today, only a shell of the original building survives, which is oblong, approximately 10.8 metres by 7.2 metres. It originally stood two storeys high with an attic or garret in the gabled roof, each floor comprising a single room. Both gables remain largely intact, although the side walls have been significantly reduced.

The building is not unlike the nearby bastle houses of Mervinslaw and Slack’s Tower. However, Overton differs from these structures in that it is built in lime mortar rather than being clay bonded, and that each of the principal floors has a fireplace in the west gable.

Adjoining the east side are the footings of additional buildings, likely part of a later farmstead or possibly contemporary outbuildings.

Photo taken below the ruin, looking upwards, showing the severity of the ruin. Wall on south has gone almost entirely. Blue sky. Ruin is fenced-off.

This tower is presumably the “strong tower house” erected by Robert Frissel (Fraser) in the last quarter of the 16th century.

If the time of construction is correct, then it would have avoided the Wars of the Rough Wooing, when many border towers were attacked and burnt. Nor are there any records of the tower being caught up in any more localised conflicts. However, with nearby Slack’s Tower a possession of the Oliver family, Overton Tower may have been used to shelter from their reiving activities, and any cross-border raiders.

Good view of western gable end, with gate visible which would give access through fence to ruin.

Like many border tower houses, Overton Tower sits on farmland, east of the A68 trunk road. Getting there requires a lengthy walk, taking the minor road towards the cottages at Overton Bush, and then continuing along the farm track, keeping the farm to your left. Much of the walk is uphill, and once on the farm track, it is rough underfoot. You may also encounter livestock. Once at the top of the hill, the ruin below should bevisible.

View from north east, showing the ruin on its terrace above the valley below.

Sadly, Overton Tower is quite a severe ruin. But it still has its charm, and is an important example of a fortified bastle farmhouse that reflects the violent past of the Scottish Borders region.

Overton Tower: OS Map Grid Reference NT 685 128

Further reading

Trove .scot

Mike Salter, 1994, The Castles of Lothian and the Borders (Folly Publications)