Currie.] LENNOX TOWER. 333
The surface of the pond on Harelaw Muir is 802
feet above the level of the sea.
One of the chief antiquities of Cume is Lennox
Tower, on a high bank overhanging the Water of?
Leith, and now called by the rather uncouth name
of Lumphoy. It is a massive edifice, measuring
externally fifty-five feet by thirty-five, with walls
above seven feet in thickness. It is entered by
an archway on the north, where the gate was
secured by a horizontal bar, the socket of which
as cattle were apt to stray into it. The extent of
the outer rampart, which goes round the brow of
the hill, is given in the ? Old Statistical Account ?
as measuring ?304 paces, or 1,212 feet.?
It was surrounded by a moat, and there can still
be traced the remains of a deep ditch. Though
small, it was undoubtedly a place of some strength.
Amongst the many conjectures of which it has
been the subject, one declares it to have been a
hunting-seat of James VI. and a residence of George
still remains in the wall. It is all built of polished
ashlar; the hall windows are arched, with stone
seats within them, and the ascent to the upper
storeys has been by a narrow circular stair, part
of which still remains within the thickness of the
wall, at the north-east angle, the steps of which are
only three feet long.
It is said, traditionally, to take its name from the
Lennox family, to whom it belonged; and the
same vague authority assigns it as a residence to
Mary and Darnley, and afterwards to the Regent
Morton. It occupies very high ground, commandhg
a beautiful prospect of the Firth of Forth, and
has a subterranean passage to the river, which was
Heriot, hy whom it was bequeathed to a daughter,
? from whom, along with the adjacent land, it was
purchased by an ancestor of the present proprietor.?
It has been alleged that there existed a subterranean
communication between it and Colinton
Tower, the old abode of the Foulis family; and
the common stock story is added that a piper once
tried to explore it, and that the sound of his pipes
was heard as far as Currie Bridge, where he
perished. But people were still living in 1845 who
had explored this secret passage for a considerable
way.
? It is supposed that the garrison (in war time)
secured by this means a clandestine supply of water,
