Dovecot, Inshes House is a Grade A listed building in the Highland local planning authority area, Scotland. First listed on 5 October 1971.
Dovecot, Inshes House
- WRENN ID
- still-courtyard-spring
- Grade
- A
- Local Planning Authority
- Highland
- Constituency
- Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire MP: Mr Angus MacDonald (LD)
- Country
- Scotland
- Date first listed
- 5 October 1971
- OS grid reference
- NH 695 436
- Coordinates
- 57.46466, -4.17717
- Source
- Historic Environment Scotland listing
Description
This is a small, three-storey tower house, dating to around 1600. It is likely a surviving angle tower of a former castle and is situated within the grounds of Inshes House. The tower is built of harled rubble with ashlar dressings. It possesses a stone slab roof and end corniced stacks, although one is in poor condition. A wallhead stack is also present. The entrance is positioned off-set in the northwest gable. The tower has a window in each of the upper storeys, with a blocked centre window on the northwest elevation, and a gable attic window on each elevation; all windows have chamfered jambs. Small, splayed loopholes are present in the base of the tower, alongside scattered angle and mural shot holes.
A late 19th-century mural bellcote, without a bell, is mounted on the north gable.
The interior contains a later 16th or early 17th century dormer pediment set into the wall, bearing initials and an armorial. Ground floor measurements are approximately 13 feet by 13 feet.
The armorial pediment shows initials “T W” and “A T”. It is believed the tower was used as a dovecote, although no nesting boxes remain. References can be found in Nigel Tranter’s THE QUEEN’S SCOTLAND, THE NORTH-EAST (1974) and the National Monuments Record of Scotland.
Local climate
Dovecot, Inshes House sits in a wetter-than-average part of the UK, with an average of 990 mm of rain a year. This makes it wetter than 80% of listed buildings in the UK. Its exposure to wind-driven rain is lower than that of 60% of listed buildings.
It experiences an average of 54 freeze-thaw cycles a year, more than 94% of listed buildings. Of these, 36 follow at least 1 mm of rain in the preceding 48 hours. Average temperatures at this location have risen by 0.2°C per decade since 1991.
Averages for 1991–2020; temperature trend 1991–2025. Figures describe the wider area (a grid cell of roughly 10 km), not the individual site. Contains modified Copernicus Climate Change Service information 2026.
More on this building
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- No EPC on record for this property
- No sale records on file
- No related consent applications matched
- Detailed attributes — period, style, materials, features
- Flood risk assessment
- Radon risk assessment
- Weather exposure and heating demand — rain and frost month by month and year by year, wind direction, solar and humidity
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