Violently besieged by invading armies on at least two separate occasions, it is today difficult to imagine such scenes, surrounded as the Tower is now by a tranquil and beautifully manicured park and hundreds of modern houses and gardens.

Nonetheless, Preston Tower was once a site of vital strategic importance and its position, close to one the busiest north-south traveller routes outside Edinburgh, meant that it drew the hostile attentions of invading English forces under the Earl of Hertford in 1544 and the army of Oliver Cromwell in 1650. We do not now know what happened to its unfortunate occupants after surrendering following each short siege, but on both occasions the tower was burned to a shell.

According to one eminent local historian, the lower part of Preston Tower was first built around the year 1365, probably by the Seton family, longstanding allies of the Bruce dynasty. It passed in the latter 14th century, possibly by marriage, into the hands of a cadet branch of the increasingly powerful Hamiltons. It stayed in their hands for several centuries, during which time they constructed its upper storeys, in 1626, adding on top of the medieval defensive tower a small palace as befitting the cultural aspirations of a family on the rise during the European Renaissance.

The Hamiltons rebuilt the tower following the siege by Cromwell’s troops, only to watch its sumptuous wooden painted ceilings, carved interiors and rich tapestries burn again, following an accidental fire this time, in 1663. The family had already built a more convenient small home (possibly as a dower house) at ground level nearby, now called Hamilton House, so decided not to rebuild Preston Tower.

Remaining open to the elements ever since, the partially ruinous Tower has been at the heart of the growing town of Prestonpans for the last two centuries. Owned by the National Trust for Scotland since the late 1960s and in the care of East Lothian Council since 1972, Preston Tower is about to enjoy a neo-Renaissance as a restoration project has just got underway which finally hopes to restore public access to the Tower, after many decades of being unable to gain entry, by sometime next year.