Corstorphine Dovecot

Corstorphine Dovecot is a beehive shaped building made from sandstone. It was built in the 1500s as part of the Corstorphine Castle estate and is still in good condition. Nothing is left of the castle today, and the grounds are now covered by modern housing.

The size of the doocot, which contains a whopping 1060 nesting boxes, indicates that it was built for a household of some wealth and prestige. It sat around 150 metres away from Corstorphine Castle - far enough to keep the birds from disturbing the occupants, but near enough to keep them secure. 

Meat and eggs from the doocot were probably used in the kitchens of the castle, and the guano was likely used to fertilise the gardens. Their dung could also have been used in the production of saltpetre – an ingredient in gunpowder!

In 1374, Sir Adam Forrester acquired the lands of Corstorphine and began to build a castle.

Descriptions and views of the remnants in the early 19th century suggest it was a tower with a defensive outer wall, with circular corner towers, surrounded by a moat. 

His descendant, Sir James Forrester of Corstorphine, was killed at the Battle of Pinkie in 1547. The dovecot is thought to have been built around this date.

The castle was burned to the ground in 1790 and largely demolished. The dovecot remained and went on to become the namesake of Dovecot Road, built in 1881 as part of the expansion of Corstorphine Village.

A famous sycamore tree stood to the east of the doocot until it was destroyed in the Boxing Day storms of 1998.

It marked the site where, in 1679, Christian Nimmo murdered her uncle, James Forrester, 2nd Lord Forrester, with whom she was having an affair.

Nimmo was tried and sentenced, but escaped to Fala Moor in Midlothian, before being recaptured and beheaded in 1679.