Binnhill Tower

Binnhill Tower stands on Binn Hill in the centre of Binn Wood, about 0.64 kilometres east of Kinfauns Castle in Perth and Kinross. A stone-built Gothic structure, it was completed in 1813 as an observatory for Francis Gray, the 14th Lord Gray. The tower was designed to give views of the River Tay and the Lomond Hills. It has four storeys and a square shape with an octagonal spiral staircase inside. The entrance is an arched doorway on the ground floor. The tower has had a troubled history. By the late 20th century it had fallen into disrepair, the roof rotted away and vandalism damaged the doorway. A fire was set against the doorway in the 1990s. It was placed on the Buildings at Risk Register in 1997 and considered to be in poor condition. It is now a Category B listed structure and has been sold twice since 2015. Visitors reach the tower on foot through Binn Wood. The Gothic stone tower rises above the woodland, its arched doorway marking the start of the octagonal spiral staircase inside. The tower’s four storeys offer no modern comforts, only the original stonework and the views it was built to frame. The surrounding wood and distant river and hills complete the scene.