Foo’s yer doos – aye pickin?
April 2005
by Nick Brown
‘Doocot’ is the Scots word for ‘a building devoted to the domestication of pigeons’. Domesticated pigeons all originate from the rock dove, columba livia, so called because it lives in caves and cliff sites. The true rock dove, with its green nape and grey, black-barred wings, is now mostly found along Scottish coastal zones, though its feral descendants can be found throughout our cities.
Pigeon houses were plentiful in 3000bc in Egypt and were prolific in the Middle East in huge towers. Doves produce from four to 16 young in a year and this prolific breeding cycle made them ideal for farming. Pigeon rearing progressed through Europe, becoming especially popular in France. Despite Roman occupation of parts of the UK, it was the Normans who introduced pigeon rearing into England, as there is no mention before Domesday. It would have been known in Scotland by the 12th and 13th centuries, as the feudal system became more established.
Due to the writings of Arthur Cooke (1920) it is wrongly thought that doos were ‘kept as a fresh source of meat in winter until the introduction of the turnip’. Ecclesiastical and household accounts show that most birds were consumed between February and October, coinciding with natural breeding cycles.
The Norse word ‘squab’ for a young dove means ‘soft and thick’. A delicacy, they were eaten as pie, roast, stews, or as cold meat. Eggs were eaten too, but less so. Adults were regarded only as food in desperate times – split and grilled like a kipper, or made into doo tart.
Their dung was used as a rich fertiliser, as well as in gunpowder making, tanning and removing hair from pelts.
During medieval times, pigeons were extensively used for medicinal purposes. “Apply warm hearts of birds to the feet of those with a fever,” was the advice. In the 17th century, a physician recommended a mixture of pigeon dung, bear’s grease and pepper as an “ointment against baldness”.
Pigeons are still for racing, but in bloodier times, they were used for hawking and owling. They were shot at Victorian gun clubs where, in the words of a sympathiser, “delicate ladies and high-born gentlemen spend their hours in watching pigeons mangled for wanton sport”.
Throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, doocots were often built as follies in designed landscapes. Many superstitions were associated with them, too – some thought that the building of a doocot would cause a man to lose his wife. The tempestuous laird of Gordonstoun, Robert Gordon, built four!
During the two World Wars, pigeons were used as messengers and there are still millions of domesticated birds in the UK.
Feudal privileges were introduced by the Normans and the housing of doos was largely confined to the nobility, ecclesiasts and royalty. The oldest dated dovecote in the UK is in Hereford (1326) and in Scotland at Mertoun (1576). The General Index of the Acts of Parliament in Scotland tell much about pigeon rearing:
1424 – ‘destroyers of cotes may be punished’.
1503 – ‘James IV encourages the building of cotes by lords and lairds’.
1535 – ‘The shooting of pigeons prohibited and could result in loss of hand’.
1560 – Dissolution of the RC Church results in many doocots falling into secular hands.
1617 – James VII restricts the right to build by relating to amount of land owned within two miles of cote. This law reinforces the elitist nature of doocot building, and acknowledges the growing concern of one owner’s birds feeding off the land of a neighbour.
Doocot designs have aroused curiosity amongst architects and historians for many years. In Scotland, the surviving historical doocots are invariably built in stone; sometimes highly architectural, more often they are truly vernacular and exemplify local construction techniques. They have an individual stamp and are rarely identical, though there is an identical pair at Ackergill, Caithness.
Despite the quest for individualism, doocots do have certain, recognisable prototypes. The dome vaulted beehive shape (based on a resemblance to straw bee skeps) is a primitive, but elegant form, like the defensive brochs of Orkney, or the bottled-kilns of the earliest industrial periods. There are good examples of these highly secure caverns at Linlithgow, Corstorphine, Dirleton, St Andrews, Crail, and Aberdour. A curious example constructed on a wall top can be found at Crossraguel Abbey.
Early examples of stone cotes with square or rectangular plan forms can be seen at Tantallon, Rosyth and Pittendreich near Elgin, all with superb slabbed stone roofs. Later exampes from the 17th and 18th centuries are at Dalvey, near Forres, Ballindalloch in Speyside and Tealing in Tayside, using stone slates on timber-built roofs, some with crow-stepped gables.
Throughout the 17th century, cotes were built to be robust from thieves, but were not immune from trouble. An owner of a cote in Glasgow Green complained to a magistrate in 1653 about “… loons constantly chapping on the door o ma ducat”.
The lectern or lean-to shaped doocots are common in Scotland, France and Spain. Most ly 17th and 18th century, one of the finest examples, at Finavon in Angus, contains 2,500 nest boxes.
By the mid-18th century, doocots were becoming quite sophisticated, many designed by reputable architects. Cylindrical doocots were deemed efficient, elegant and a perfect shape for revolving internal ladders to collect the squabs. Fine examples can be found at Inverary (Robert Adam) and Daldowie in Strathclyde. Doocots polygon in plan were common in England, but octagon plan-shapes are widely found in Scotland, such as Lesmurdie in Elgin, Denbie House, Dumfries and Culloden House, near Inverness. Examples of the rarer hexagon are found at Craigiebuckler, Aberdeen; Duff House, Banff, and Cambo House, Fife. Nisbet House in Berwickshire is an unusual example of a pentagonal plan.
By the late 18th century, the age of agricultural improvement had well and truly arrived. This resulted in, on the one hand, a downscaling of doocot size on some estates ; certain landowners were concerned about grain consumption by birds. On the other hand, more doocots were built, particularly on farms or on smaller estates. Many were constructed as mixed-use structures, with doves and other animals, such as hens, pigs, cows, horses and geese, combined. Good examples can be found at Hazelwood near Craigellachie, and Grangehall, near Kinloss. A common solution was to site a doocot on a farm steading, particularly above pend entrances, such as at Aden near Mintlaw, Invererne near Forres, and Saltoun Hall, East Lothian.
Not every doocot conformed to prototype, and curious examples are found all over Scotland. The Norse roof at Phantassie in East Lothian is near unique, as is the Greek temple doocot at Annisfield, Haddington, and the corbelled turret at Edzell. The four-roofed doocot at Candacraig in Strathdon is unique to Scotland, although a number can be found in England). The inclusion of doocots within castles can be found at Haile, Rothesay, and Pitlurg near Keith, whilst the conversion of early windmill structures can be seen at Gordonstoun and Cannee in Wigtown.
The insides of doocots are fascinating – dark, eerie spaces, replicating the cavernous, natural habitats of the Rock Dove; sometimes nest boxes were built into caves. Nesting spaces were normally constructed in stone, in a linear arrangement, but there are many examples of nest boxes made of timber, brick and clay daub, sometimes staggered, and rarely tied to the outside walling. The interiors of large doocots must have been extraordinary sights and sounds (and smells) when full of adult birds and their offspring.
Pigeons were sometimes fed by hand, particularly in winter time (some dooccots have internal or external feed tables) but throughout most of the year they foraged naturally – much to the annoyance of neighbouring landowners.
Alexander Brodie, neighbour of Robert Gordon of Gordonstoun, took out a lawsuit in 1751 when Gordon tried to build his fourth doocot. He said to the judge, “It is erected upon the farther end of a barren moor close to my march at a great distance from his own fields. It is purposely chosen, in order that the pigeons may be wholly maintained out of my cornfields”. Brodie lost his case; Gordon built the doocot.
The decline of doocots as food factories for the elite is wrongly associated with the introduction of the turnip as winter fodder for cattle. Few large structures were built after the first quarter of the 19th century due to changes in diet, improved agricultural practices, the break up of estates, the Corn Laws, the costs of managing and maintaining cotes, and the industrial revolution. Small cotes were erected on farms, or within the ground of professional men (doctors, ministers, lawyers), and at a few roadside inns. Many were erected for reasons of pleasure or fancy, rather than for food.
By the 20th century, doocots had become associated with the working classes, usually for the purpose of homing and racing and often sited in the lofts of homes and outbuildings. Some of the purpose-built racing cotes of the early 20th century are now listed. Curious examples of free-standing cotes constructed in corrugated iron were common in Scotland’s large council estates in Edinburgh and Glasgow until the late 20th century.
Although still popular in France and Belgium, the UK did not retain its appetite for squab. The consequence is a profusion of redundant doocots across Scotland, some dating back almost 500 years. These present a problem for owners and conservationists, since it is unrealistic to expect all to be retained in good order.
A relatively affordable strategy to safeguard this heritage is to record and analyse the building remains for future generations. Several members of The Scottish Vernacular Buildings Working Group have agreed to photograph and measure Scotland’s doocots over a number of years. This exercise will result in a series of publications covering all our historic doocots, around 500 buildings. The first booklet, Doocots of Scotland; Moray, was published last year and others are in the pipeline – Highland, Dumfries & Galloway, East Lothian, Edinburgh.
It seems that as many doocots have been lost as remain. In 1931, Robert Douglas, a medical officer from Elgin, wrote, “Dovecotes are being gradually demolished or falling into decay, many of them having disappeared during recent years. Such is the inevitable fate of erections which have served their day and generation”.
The alternatives are limited. Some doocots have been converted into cottages – Carse of Gowrie, Ravelston, and Newliston – but changing to human use inevitably leads to crude alteration and much loss of original fabric. Some doocots act as landscape follies on golf courses – Banchory, Ratho, Taymouth – or within modern housing schemes – Lesmurdie in Elgin, Hospitalfield in Arbroath, Duff House in Banff. Some are in the care of the State, Local Government or the National Trust – Direlton, Tantallon, Boath, Findlater, Tealing.
Many doocots are reaching the point of no return, becoming Buildings at Risk. Should they be allowed to go or should we intervene?
Doocots of Scotland: Moray, by Nick Brown (SVBWG Sales, Frances & Munro Dunn, 6 Hillview Road, Edinburgh: £7.50)
Dr Nick Brown studied architecture in Aberdeen, and then town planning at Dundee. He currently heads up the Aberdeenshire Towns Partnership. He is a member of the Institute of Historic Building Conservation and the Society of Antiquaries.
This is an article from the April 2005 edition of Leopard Magazine. To read much more like this every month, see our subscription details.