Rusco Tower

Gordon went on to kill Maclellan on the High Street in Edinburgh, while a court case intended to settle the matter was ongoing.

In 1971 it was designated a Category A listed building, and was shortly afterwards purchased and renovated by Graham Carson, a Scottish businessman, who went on to live in it from 1979 until 2006.

[5] Within the parapet, which is crenellated and supported by chequered corbels, there is a garret, and in the south east corner is a cap-house: a small attic covering the stairway and opening onto the wall walk.

[3][5] The chamfered windows are small and irregularly placed,[1] and corniced on the upper floors;[10] their projecting lintels, unusual in Scotland, seem to have been intended to cast off rain.

[11] In the west and east faces, the ground floor walls are pierced by gunloops, shaped like inverted keyholes, in a style similar to that of Cardoness.

In 1507, while still under the horn, Gordon was given permission to travel to France, and in 1511 he was given a pardon for his part in the crime, and allowed to return to Scotland and take up his estate once more.

In 1523 he sought to bring the legal dispute to an end by abducting Andrew Agnew, the heir of Lochnaw and his own grandson, and imprisoning him at Rusco.

When the boy's uncle, Matthew Agnew, demanded that he be returned within three days, Gordon claimed that he had been placed in a school in Dumfries.

a little ruined tower, Erected by forgotten hands, Though once the abode of pride and power, That by the river's margin stands— Of old the Lords of Lochinvar Here dwelt in peace, but armed for war; And Rusco Castle could declare That valiant chief and lady fair Had often wooed and wedded there.

Upon the eastern bank of Fleet, Castramont smiles—a hamlet sweet Just fronting Rusco Tower, Of peace and war two emblems meet— None fairer than the first we meet, The other seems a dark retreat Where savage passions lower.

Sources:[18][19] Robert Gordon died in 1524, and within a year his wife Mariota Carson married Thomas Maclellan of Bombie.

[20] Her husband appealed to the courts, but before the case was concluded Maclellan was killed, in broad daylight, by Gordon and his retinue on the High Street in Edinburgh.

[1] The following year, it was purchased by Graham Carson, a Scottish businessman, who employed the architect W. Murray Jack to restore it to an inhabitable condition.

A line drawing of a tower house
A view of the tower from the south east, published in 1889.
The south elevation of Rusco Tower
The tower's east elevation.
Plans and a section of a tower
19th-century plans and sections of the tower, still showing the 17th-century extension