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How Lord and Lady David Steel turned Aikwood Tower,
a sixteenth century Borders castle, into a stunning family home.
Built in the 1540s, Aikwood Tower had been unoccupied for nearly two
centuries except for a brief spell in 1906 when it was used as a
bothy. Some of the bulls from the adjoining byre even lived in the
ground floor of the Tower, in what is now the kitchen. Accessed by
hatches and a pulley system, grain and hay were stored in the three
upper floors of the Tower.
We are sitting on leather chairs in the homely surroundings of the
vaulted kitchen with a black cat purring on the antique farmhouse
table; Baron Steel of Aikwood, former leader of the Liberal Party,
and, in 1999, Presiding Officer of the first Scottish Parliament
before his recent retirement, describes how he and Lady Steel took
on the challenging restoration of Aikwood Tower near Selkirk.
“We lived two miles up the road and visited the Tower on a regular
basis. It was full of pigeons and rats but had caught our
imagination. The Tower was owned by the Duke of Buccleuch. He wanted
to see Aikwood brought back into use and knew that we dreamed of
doing so. The building was in a critical state of dilapidation with
the main chimney breast looking unstable, and the roof, top floor
and windows in complete need of replacement.”
Aikwood Tower was built by ‘Maister Michael Scott’ after James V
issued a decree to local lairds to fortify the Scottish Borders
“against troublous times”. The Borders were a lawless region with
cattle thieving by “reivers” and repeated family feuds. Aikwood
Tower sits on a strategic bluff guarding the entrance to the Ettrick
Valley on a site once occupied by a Roman fort. The castle was
clearly designed to be defensive, with only one small entrance door
barred inside by a large iron yett and tiny slit and round windows.
Lord Steel described his rôle in the restoration:
“I just knocked down a few things, helped by my sons and future
daughter-in-law. I discovered an aumbre, a dry closet, bricked up in
a corner of the laird’s private room next to the great hall. We
wanted to use local firms so we employed local craftsmen from
Selkirk. My wife managed the project teams – masons, joiners,
plumbers, plasterers and slaters – from a caravan next to the
Tower.”
“What were some of the lessons you learnt in the course of the
restoration?” I asked.
“Helped by our architect, Malcolm Hammond, we spent the first year
doing plans and grant applications, and visiting other restorations
to learn from their experiences. The walled garden had been used as
a bull yard so only two old apple trees remained. A friend who’d
renovated a nearby tower, recommended that we start the garden at
the same time as Aikwood – an inspired piece of advice, as our
daughter Catriona’s wedding to Rajiv would be able to take place
here soon after the completion date.
“Both lighting and drainage were a challenge: we hid the wiring and
plumbing in one internal channel up the centre of the building; and
we used subtle, ambient lighting, which was designed by my rally
navigator.
“The Tower had very small windows. Many were only defensive slits,
so we made the rooms lighter by painting internal walls stark white.
“Water penetration through the eight foot thick walls meant that
they took a very long time to dry out. Ideally, we should have put
the roof on first and let the walls dry out completely before doing
the internal finishes.
”The overall budget was nearly three times what we’d originally
anticipated although some of that was down to the very dilapidated
byre. It would probably have been easier to rebuild the byre from
scratch.
“A Tower house doesn’t provide much living space but the byre gave
us a large venue for exhibitions, dinners and functions with office
space on the first floor. We had a dinner here for Aston Martin Club
International. Borders Vintage Automobile Club also use Aikwood as a
regular stop off for their summer barbeques.”
One of Lord Steel’s hobbies is rallying vintage cars. He tells me
that he has owned an Alvis, half a dozen Jaguars, a three litre
Rover and a Riley, and still has an Austin Gipsy. The Riley is his
favourite.
The Steels are not gardeners so they commissioned a young garden
architect, Louise Wall, to create a low maintenance “pleasure
garden”. The axes of the paths echo the vertical lines of the Tower.
The herbaceous beds bordering the lawns contain plants typical of an
eighteenth century Scottish garden: bugle, thrift, lungwort,
wormwood, southernwood, columbine, Broom Brush and rose beds. The
roses are old varieties with a short flowering season, but, in the
words of Lady Steel, they are “excellent for pot-pourri, and also
for a delicious Turkish rose-petal sorbet”. Beyond the lawn the
orchard has been restored with old varieties including quince, crab
apple, damson, medlar, local White Melrose apples and even some
traditional nut trees.
Aikwood Tower has been painstakingly restored, winning six
architectural awards including the Europa Nostra. It is imposing and
timeless, but also a welcoming family home for Lord and Lady Steel,
their children and grand children, and to quote Lord Steel, “it’s
great fun to live here”.
Interviewed by Christopher Lamotte
from Real Marketing
Tel: 01620 825 751
E-mail: c.lamotte@real-m.com
Website: www.real-m.com
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