Dryden Tower and Curling in Roslin.

Yesterday I took a walk over the fields to the Dryden Tower, Bilston, which - despite having worked and lived in the area for forty plus years, I have never visited .

I have heard a couple of stories over the years but still do not have the true story .  We are led to believe that the Tower was built as a "folley" by the owner of Dryden House,  but from the lay out of the building there are rooms, with fireplaces, and a suggestion that it was used as living quarters for staff from the big house.   Dryden House itself fell into disrepair and the remains are buried beneath the waste from the now defunct Bilston Glen Colliery.    Another story about Dryden House suggests that the owner was forced to put it up as a stake whilst gambling and lost, however the stake was the house, not the grounds or access so the winner had a house which he could not gain entry to so the place became a ruin.     It is possible to see as far as the Firth of Forth at North Berwick from the top of the tower so it might have been possible for staff with a telescope to see ships in the Forth, bringing the Master home  !!!!!!!! ( another tale).

At the opposite end of Roslin, in the woods beside the roundabout on the A701  at Gowkleymoss and beside the entrance to the walkway past the old Moat Pit, is the site of the Roslin Curling pond. 

The stone hut on site was probably the original store room for the stones, and curlers, and a larger building was built on the north side of it, however it has since fallen down and only the foundation remains.  There was an active curling club in Roslin for many years, certainly from the late 1816 when the Curling Club was formed, but a curling stone was found with the date 1613 thereon suggesting that curlers have played in the area for much longer.    It is a pity that mother nature has reclaimed the site -  it was cleared many years ago when a new roof was put on the hut, so perhaps it might be cleared out again in the future.