Pringle of Torwoodlee
The Pringles of Torwoodlee, Selkirkshire, are descended from William Pringle of Smailholm who had a tack of the forest steid of Caddonlee in 1488, and one of Torwoodlee in 1509, to him and his son  George. In the same year he had a charter of one-fourth part of the barony of Cliftoun, Roxburghshire, which afterwards was sold to another  branch of the Pringles. He was slain at the battle of Flodden in  September 1513.

His  son, George Pringle of Torwoodlee, was at the battle of Pinkie in 1547.  In 1568 he was murdered by a party of Liddesdale reivers, to the number of 300, consisting of Elliots, Armstrongs, and other clans from the west border, under John Elliot of Copshaw, who had attacked, plundered and  burnt the house of Torwoodlee.

Torwoodlee Tower was built in 1601 by George Pringle to replace an earlier stronghold, and reflects the aspirations of the family as well as their expectation of more settled times in the new century. Power and money could guarantee security more effectively than the old cramped tower-house so recently demolished.

Torwoodlee Tower stands in ruins now, abandoned in its turn when the Pringles built a fine Georgian mansion in the eighteenth century. The remains of the older building stand on an extensive terrace above the  valley of the Gala Water about a mile above Galashiels.

The prominent feature of the ruins is the stair tower which, though an empty shell, still rises to its full height. Though the tower was not designed as a defensible building there is still a hint of the need for security in the loopholed parapet of a fragment of courtyard wall.

Torwoodlee Tower is still owned by Pringles. It is no longer just a tower and lands, a  small Georgian mansion was added in 1783, with later additions in Victorian times.

Map of Torwoodlee (Multimap.com) 

Tor = Hill;  Wood = Wood; Lee = Shade, shelter

Please visit: www.torwoodlee.com for further information.

Also : www.wildlifeshadows.co.uk