Hawkshaw
Ancestral family home of the Porteous family on the River Tweed just two miles southwest of Tweedsmuir in Peeblesshire, Scotland]], dating from at least 1439.A fortified tower stood here for hundreds of years, although nothing remains of it now, its site being marked with a cairn which plays host to a gathering of Porteous family members from all over the world every five years.
The tower was probably one of a series of so-called Peel towers, small fortified keeps built along the Scottish Borders, intended as watch towers where signal fires could be lit to warn of approaching danger.
A line of these towers was built in the 1430s across the Tweed valley from Berwick to its source, as a response to the dangers of invasion from the English Borders. Hawkshaw was one of over two dozen of these in Peeblesshire alone.
