Abernethy Round Tower

Abernethy Round Tower is a stone-built Irish-style round tower standing in School Wynd in Abernethy, Perthshire. It is one of only two such towers in Scotland, the other being at Brechin Cathedral. The tower stands within the village’s cemetery beside St Bride’s parish church. Dating from the 11th century, it is protected as a scheduled monument. The tower’s base is of a different coloured stone, suggesting the lower section may have been built earlier than the rest. The tower is linked to the historic abbey once held by Culdees and later by Augustinians before its dissolution in the mid-16th century. A plaque on the tower marks the site where Malcolm III of Scotland paid homage to William the Conqueror in 1072. The sandstone structure is 22.5 m high with walls 1.07 m thick at the base. It originally had six wooden floors, likely connected by ladders, and a viewing platform at the top. A Pictish stone is fixed to the tower’s base, and an iron joug or pillory is attached to its exterior. Over time, an iron spiral staircase was added when it became a lookout tower. The current clock, installed in 1868, bears Queen Victoria’s initials, and a flagpole with a salmon finial reflects the town’s traditional industry. The tower’s surroundings include the cemetery and St Bride’s parish church.