Elphinstone Tower, East Lothian

Situated two miles south of Tranent, Elphinstone Tower is a massive oblong building whose eight feet thick stone walls reach a height of 57 feet. Probably built in the fourteenth century with a modern house added in 1600 the three main storeys beneath the wall-head feature a paraphet walk with rounded corners. The entrance doorway is north facing, built to house a timber outer-door and an iron inner-gate leading into a hall, kitchen and prison. Long the residence of the lairds of Elphinstone the Tower's most famous visitor was George Wishart, the Covenanting martyr who was taken out of his bed by the notorious Earl of Bothwell and delivered to Cardinal Beaton. Wishart was thereafter hurried off to St. Andrews where he was burned at the stake.