The Fortified House in Scotland facts for kids
The Fortified House in Scotland is a cool five-volume book series by a Scottish writer named Nigel Tranter. It's all about old, strong buildings in Scotland.
This amazing book, written between 1962 and 1970, explores almost 700 different buildings. These aren't just huge castles like Edinburgh or Stirling. It also covers smaller, strong homes. Think of places like peel towers, keeps, and houses built to protect families. Many of these are tower houses, some of which are now partly in ruins. Nigel Tranter drew a picture of each building using pen and ink.
Nigel Tranter had actually written a similar book in the 1930s. This five-volume series was a much bigger and updated version. Even though some information might be a bit old now, the books are still very important. They give us a great look at these historic buildings. Original first editions of the books are quite special and sought after by collectors.
The first four books were published by Oliver & Boyd. The fifth book was published by W. & R. Chambers. Later, the whole series was printed again in 1977 and 1986 by James Thin, through their company The Mercat Press. Nigel Tranter made some small changes for these new printings. The extra buildings from the original fifth book were also moved into the correct volumes for the reprints.
Contents
The Book Series: What Each Volume Covers
The series is split into five volumes, each covering different parts of Scotland.
Volume 1: South East Scotland
This first book came out in 1962. It explores buildings in the south-east of Scotland.
- It covers areas like West Lothian, Midlothian, East Lothian, Peeblesshire, Roxburghshire, Selkirkshire, and Berwickshire.
Volume 2: Central Scotland
Published in 1963, this volume focuses on the middle part of Scotland.
- It includes places such as Stirlingshire, Fife, Kinross-shire, Perthshire, and Clackmannanshire.
Volume 3: South West Scotland
This book, released in 1965, looks at buildings in the south-west of Scotland.
- It covers Renfrewshire, Lanarkshire, Ayrshire, Wigtownshire, Kirkcudbrightshire, and Dumfriesshire.
Volume 4: Aberdeenshire, Angus and Kincardineshire
This fourth volume came out in 1966.
- It focuses on the historic areas of Aberdeenshire, Angus, and Kincardineshire.
Volume 5: North and West Scotland and Miscellaneous
The final book was published in 1970. It covers the northern and western parts of Scotland.
- It includes Inverness-shire, Nairnshire, Banffshire, Moray, Caithness, Sutherland, Ross and Cromarty, Argyllshire, Buteshire, Dunbartonshire, Orkney, and Shetland.
- This volume also has extra buildings that weren't included in the earlier books.
