The four-storey tower is 68 feet (21 m) high, excluding the attic. The building is made from coursed rubble and measures 62.5 by 39.5 feet (19.1 by 12.0 m) in size.[2] The building has been extensively re-fenestrated during its history, but retains some internal medieval features.[4]
It was originally built as part of a line of fortifications defending the north shore of the Firth of Forth.[5] Several 19th-century works, including Groome's Gazetteer,[6] date the tower to the year 1223.[7] Archaeological investigations from the early 1990s date the original fortified house to the early 14th century, where it had a cellar that sometimes served as a pit prison. By the mid-14th century, it had been enlarged with a great hall and rose to three storeys in height, with the entrance on the first floor. In the 15th century, it was further enlarged to four/five levels while retaining its first-floor access.
Alloa Tower in 2006
Late in the 16th century, ground-floor access was probably added.[5]
John Erskine, 6th Earl of Mar, built a very large mansion (Alloa House) in 1710 that incorporated the tower as its annexe. Mar wrote:
There is something in the Old Tower, especially if made to conform to the new design, which is venerable for its antiquity & makes not a bad appearance & would make one regret the being obliged to pull it down.[8]
Mar made plans to remodel the tower's interior, but it is unclear what changes were actually made. The house burned down in 1800[5] and was rebuilt by George Angus in 1834–1838 for the 9th Earl. It was demolished sometime after 1868.[2]
Mary, Queen of Scots visited John, Lord Erskine and his wife Annabell Murray at Alloa on 16 June 1562, and again in May 1565. Mary returned to Alloa on 28 July 1566, soon after the birth of Prince James.[11] This visit subsequently attracted the attention of her enemies, and the details are disputed.[12] A chronicle mentions that she left her servants at Newhaven, and took a small boat to Alloa, crewed by "simple men of seafare trade".[13] According to George Buchanan and the "Book of Articles", the crew were "notorious pirates", associates of the Earl of Bothwell including William and Edmund Blackadder.[14][15]
Mary wrote from Alloa on 31 July to Annabell Murray's brother-in-law, the Laird of Abercairney, on behalf of the evicted widow of one of his tenants.[16]Claude Nau wrote that Mary's only companions were her ladies in waiting and the earl, and Darnley only made a brief visit.[17] When Darnley came to Alloa by road, Mary told him to go away.[18] Mary enjoyed dancing at Alloa during this visit.[19] It is also said she went to Stirling in disguise dressed as an ordinary townswoman "in homely sort" and joined in a dance around the Market Cross.[20]
Festivities, customarily held at a bridegroom's family home known as the infare,[26] were mentioned by one of the invited guests, the courtier John Elphinstone.[27] Costume was bought for a masque at Alloa in which Anne of Denmark performed, dressed in silk taffeta and "gold tock", a kind of tinsel fabric.[28][29] The party was cut short when Sir John Carmichael and Sir George Home arrived from Edinburgh with news of the crisis caused by the discovery of the Spanish blanks.[30]
^John Guy, My Heart is My Own: Mary, Queen of Scots (London, 2004), 270: Gordon Donaldson, The first trial of Mary, Queen of Scots (New York: Stein and Day, 1969), 148–149.
^Ane Cronickill of the Kingis of Scotland (Edinburgh: Maitland Club, 1830), p. 105.
^John Hosack, Mary Queen of Scots and her accusers, 1 (Edinburgh: Blackwood, 1869), pp. 524–25.
^Historic Manuscripts Commission 3rd Report (London, 1871), p. 418.
^Joseph Stevenson, The History of Mary Stewart (Edinburgh, 1883), pp. 29, 238.
^James Aikman, History of Scotland by George Buchanan, vol. 2 (Glasgow, 1827), p. 486: Ane Cronickill of the Kingis of Scotland (Edinburgh: Maitland Club, 1830), p. 106.
^HMC Salisbury Hatfield, vol. 4 (London, 1892), pp. 247, 252.
^Michael Pearce, 'Anna of Denmark: Fashioning a Danish Court in Scotland', The Court Historian, 24:2 (2019) pp. 146, 148-9 doi:10.1080/14629712.2019.1626110
^Michael Pearce, 'Maskerye Claythis for James VI and Anna of Denmark', Medieval English Theatre 43, 2021 (Cambridge: D. S. Brewer, 2022), pp. 109, 121-122 doi:10.2307/j.ctv24tr7mx.9
^Alexander Courtney, James VI, Britannic Prince: King of Scots and Elizabeth's Heir, 1566–1603 (Routledge, 2024), p. 137: Steven Veerapen, The Wisest Fool: The Lavish Life of James VI and I (Birlinn, 2023), p. 177: Thomas Thomson, The historie and life of King James the Sext (Edinburgh, 1825), p. 260.
