Towards the end of the 13th Century, the British king, Edward I, decided that he needed to add Scotland to his kingdom. Thus began a series of rather ruthless and vicious raids (called 'reiving') into Scottish territory for the purpose of subjecting the Scots to his will. Of course, the Scots would have nothing of this and so began a series of retaliatory raids that lasted for 300 years.

Warfare like this has an effect on the populace of the area and the only way to really prevent themselves from being overtaken was to build fortifications. These fortifications took the form of the standard castles that we are all used to seeing but also included a number of other types of construct that is somewhat peculiar to this form of hit and run warfare.

In addition to the usual castles there were fortified tower houses, fortified farm houses and even fortified churches. All were designed with the plan of overcoming an attacking army, housing the occupants in as much comfort as possible and allowing them to withstand a siege of some duration.

The author describes the design and development of castles and other border fortifications in some depth. Much of this is thanks to the rather large number of surviving structures. By choosing extant examples, we can see how these structures were able to provide the sort of protection that they did. We are given tours of some of these buildings to see for ourselves how they were built.

Thanks to period artwork and sketches, we get to understand what life was like in these strongholds and how they were able to withstand assaults. We can also learn what these were like through the superb illustrations of Graham Turner. Like all books in the Fortress Series, there is a section on visiting the various sites today, making this book a capable guide to these structures as well as a history of their construction, use and fate.

It is a superb book on the subject and one that I can recommend to you without reservation.

May 2008

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