The Doocot

Doocots became prominent features in the rural landscape of many parts of Scotland after the Scots Parliament passed an act requiring lairds to build doocots in 1503. In 1617 new legislation limited ownership to landowners with an annual value of 10 Chandlers. The one at Midhope dates from 1695.

 

Pigeons provided a valuable source of year-round fresh meat and eggs, adding variety to meals in the winter months. Their droppings, which built up in the doocots, made an excellent fertiliser and were used in the production of gunpowder as well as in the processes of leather tanning and cloth dyeing. Many also believed that pigeons had medicinal properties and so were used in various cures ranging from the plague to baldness.

 

There are two main types of Scottish doocots. The first purpose built doocots were made of rubble stone, beehive shaped, circular in section and tapering towards the top with a flat domed roof. The one at Midhope is of an early style, the rectangular lectern type. Lectern type doocots have a distinctive sloping roof often with crow-stepped gables that provided a perch for the pigeons and are normally divided into separate chambers. The roofs usually face south to give the birds a sunny surface to rest on, while sheltering them from northerly winds.

 

Across our county, many doocots have survived due to their substantial construction and local craftsmanship. Another possible reason for their survival may be associated with an old belief that destroying a doocot would result in a death within the year in the family of the person responsible!