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Fortified house, still in residential use, and the remains of an associated dovecot. The house is also known as Morroes Castle. It was built in the 16th century as a low, square-plan tower house, with a south range added in circa 1600. The dovecot was probably built in the early-17th century. It is shown on the 1st edition OS map as a rectangular building with a smaller rectangular building to the east, set within a rectangular enclosure divided lengthwise. The circular dovecot is shown to the north-east of the house. On the 2nd edition OS map a group of smaller buildings and enclosures link the northern end of the house to the rectangular building to the east. The house was used at one time as a bothy for farm workers, but the house was restored in 1942, and extended to the south in the 1960s. Current maps show there are two rectangular buildings to the south of the house, and most of the buildings and enclosures at the north linking the house and rectangular building have been removed. The original house and circa 1600 south addition form a two-storey rectangular-plan fortified house, with the 1960s south addition being single-storey. The house is built from pink and buff sandstone rubble with a stone slate roof, and a piended roof to the 1960s addition. Features include moulded or chamfered architraves, gun-loops, shot-holes, crowstepped gables with skewputts and crown finials and end and ridge coped stacks with thackstanes. The east elevation has a later forestair at the original tower-house section at the north, leading to a roll-moulded doorway with a stone slab-roofed porch. On the circa 1600 range in the centre of the elevation there is an entrance door with a fanlight formed from a former chimneybreast. There is a stair tower on the west elevation in the circa 1600 range. It was heightened during the 1942 restoration, and has a ball-finialled conical roof. The first floor window on the north gable end has a shouldered architrave and relieving arch. Shutters and panelling from Forthingham House (NO44SE0003) have been re-used in one of the rooms on the first floor. The building to the east of the house is likely to be contemporary with the original towerhouse. It is rubble-built with a stone slate roof. A rubble-built larder with stone shelves and a slab roof adjoins the forestair on the east elevation of the house. The boundary walls are constructed from rubble, and feature an arrow slit and blocked aperture at the north-east. The circular-plan dovecot has thick sandstone rubble walls and an entrance door at the east. It is roofless, but the stone nesting boxes remain intact. There is a large rectangular rubble-built livestock pen to the north of the dovecot.
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Historic Environment Records (HER) 
Angus
HER -
NO43NE0010 - MURROES HOUSE