Floors Castle
| Floors Castle | |
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south façade
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| General information | |
| Type | Country house |
| Location | Kelso, Scottish Borders, Scotland |
| Current tenants | Dukes of Roxburghe |
 Location of Floors Castle in Scottish Borders
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| Coordinates | 55°36′17.550″N 2°27′36.59″W / 55.60487500°N 2.4601639°WCoordinates: 55°36′17.550″N 2°27′36.59″W / 55.60487500°N 2.4601639°W |
| Built | 18th century |
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Listed Building – Category A
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| Designated | 16 March 1971 |
| Reference no. | 10480 |
| Designated | 1 July 1987 Amended 20 June 2011 |
| Reference no. | GDL00181 |
Floors Castle, in Roxburghshire, south-east Scotland, is the seat of the Duke of Roxburghe. Despite its name it is a country house rather than a fortress. It was built in the 1720s by the architect William Adam for Duke John, possibly incorporating an earlier tower house. In the 19th century it was embellished with turrets and battlements by William Playfair for Duke James. Floors has the common 18th-century layout of a main block with two symmetrical service wings. Floors Castle lies on the River Tweed and overlooks the Cheviot Hills.
Floors Castle is now a category A listed building, and the grounds are listed in the Inventory of Gardens and Designed Landscapes, the national listing of significant gardens in Scotland. It is open to the public. The castle featured in the 1984 movie Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Apes.
The Ker family, Earls and Dukes of Roxburghe, have held lands in Roxburghshire since the 12th century. Their origins are not certain, but they were likely of Norman stock originally. Since the accession of Sir James Innes as Duke in 1812, they have used the double-barelled name "Innes-Ker".
The name of Floors Castle is thought to come either from "flowers" (or the French fleurs), or from the "floors", or terraces, on which the castle is built.
Although the present Castle lacks all defensive capabilities, and was built in a period when private fortresses were redundant in lowland Scotland, there was possibly a tower house on the site. Tower houses, or pele towers, were typical of the Scottish Borders. Until the early seventeenth century, the Anglo-Scottish border lands, or "Marches", were a lawless place where reprisal attacks were common, and which often took the form of cattle rustling or murders, carried on by gangs of Reivers. Floors also stands opposite the site of Roxburgh Castle, an important medieval fortress where King James II was killed during a siege in 1460.
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Wikipedia