Preston Tower and Doocot Open Day

Come and visit the recently repaired Preston Tower and Doocot, meet the Easter Bunny, try your hand at making tapestries, find out how this remarkable site was embroiled in events that shaped life on these islands and come and see our growing collection of hand-crafted pigeons!

The volunteers from the are opening Preston Tower and Doocot once again. In addition to accessings these remarkable historic buildings, this open day you can also meet the elusive Easter Bunny, who will be wandering the Tower Gardens with treats for youngsters who complete our brass-rubbing trail, and you can try your hand at tapestry-weaving, as one of our volunteers demonstrates this ancient craft form, and helps you make miniature versions of the colourful wall-coverings that would once have beautified and brightened the cold grey interiors we see today.

General Information

Space in the Tower's accessible rooms is limited, so booking a timed entry ticket is absolutely essential to avoid disappointment or a wait for space to possibly become available on a tour. Book your FREE ticket below.

Timed Entry - do feel free to come and enjoy the beautiful gardens maintained by East Lothian Council at any time, but please turn up to access the interior of the tower at your selected time and wait at the bottom of the staircase until invited upstairs by the volunteers once the previous group has departed.

Accessibility - the first floor of this medieval tower house is only accessible via the new staircase. A wooden ramp has been created on the ground floor to improve access, but the medieval threshold step remains and the floor surface remains uneven. The gardens are, however, fully accessible with a recently constructed path leading all the way to the doocot.

General safety - although the tower has recently undergone significant repair work it remains a safely consolidated ruin that it is open to the elements. Floor surfaces may be slippery on rainy days and some possess metal gratings, so flat footwear is advisable. Birds have access to the interior, so dust, feathers and other allergans may also be present in rooms.

Parking - if visiting by car, please park at Prestonpans Community Centre, Preston Rd, Prestonpans EH32 9QS. Please do NOT park in the private Viewpoint Housing car park that is immediately adjacent to the tower.

Toilets - Unfortunately, there are no toilets available on site. The are at the foot of Ayre's Wynd, near where it meets the High Street, a ten minute walk away.

Brief history of Preston Tower repair project

Preston Tower, situated in the very heart of the town of Prestonpans, is a 15th century defensive tower house with a 17th century, Renaissance era, mini palace built on top.

Throughout its long life it has stood guard over the main route from Edinburgh to London, been attacked and burned twice by invading forces, played witness to a bloody battle that shaped the nation's history and provided a wealth of inspiration to authors, poets and painters. For over a century, from around 1850, it sat at the centre of one of the biggest commercial market garden operations in the country, providing welcome shade for the many workers toiling below.

Threatened with demolition by the town council in 1969, a campaign to save it for the town, the county and the nation followed. It soon passed into the ownership of the National Trust for Scotland and then into the care of East Lothian Council, with the local authority looking after the public gardens that surround it since they were formally laid out in1980.

Over the years a few plans were hatched to use the Tower and Doocot in innovative ways and allow public access, but nothing ever materialised, and both buildings remained locked and looking increasingly forlorn for the last few decades.

Alarmed at the ever worsening conditions of both buildings and the lack of public access, secured funds from the local Area Partnership in 2019 to carry out a professional survey of each one. With this detailed survey to hand, East Lothian Council was able to successfully bid for around £1m in town centre regeneration funding from the Scottish Government to carry out vital repairs and improve public access to both buildings and the gardens.

A four year project followed, interrupted and slowed by COVID, led by Grove Raines Architects and East Lothian Council, involving the Community Council, the National Trust for Scotland and a whole host of local and national craftspeople. The Doocot was given a new roof, extensive repair work was carried out around and inside Preston Tower, a new staircase added and a new accessible path installed running the length of the gardens. Significant new historical interpretation has also been installed inside the tower and around the gardens, produced by Lyndsay Clark, Artibrand and Studio Winton.

With no money left to staff open events at the Tower and Doocot, a small group of local volunteers have now come together to form the . A tripartite management agreement, with the Friends, the National Trust for Scotland and East Lothian Council was signed and the Friends were provided with a set of keys to open to the public for their first open day in April 2025.
In the short term, our plan is to open the Tower and Doocot regularly on occasional weekends and for school groups. The more volunteers that join us, the more open events we can eventually host, so if you would like to help, please get in touch!

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