Sunny Brae Dovecote

Heading north into Embleton from the Dunstanburgh Road, I had never noticed the upside-down conical stone structure in the skyline. Thought to be medieval, it's just a little older than me.

Known as The Sunny Brae Dovecote it can't be unseen once you see it as it's smack bang in the back garden of some wife from Embleton! It's quite a unique feature and appears to take up 50% of the back garden!

Not readily recognisable as one of the many listed gems in Embleton, this is the only scheduled Ancient Monument, which is Grade II listed! Stick that between your washing line and your BBQ!

It appears to be relatively complete, and rises out of the hubbub of little houses with dovecotey aplomb!

At approximately 6 metres in height and around 3.5 metres in diameter, it is hugged up by the other properties in the surrounding area, peeking out head and shoulders above with its little hairdo of buddleia and rosebay willowherb. Cute!

Known as a Tun Bellied Dovecote, it is shaped like a beehive and tapers to a domed roof. There is a tendency to find this style of dovecote on the east coast of Scotland, Northumberland, Durham and North Yorkshire.

Dovecotes were often seen as a signifier of status and as such, the local Laird would plonk one in a prominent place to say “Hey, look at me. I'm good and proper and have the prosperity and purse strings to afford to keep doves!”

With an abundance of whinstone on the doorstep, probably hewn locally at Embleton Quarry, and used in the production of kerb stones and paving nationally, the hard igneous rock which forms the nest boxes came from the whin sill. This stone formed around 295 million years ago when molten rock spread between layers of limestone, sandstone, and shale. The Sunny Brae Dovecote exterior is dressed with more decorative sandstone. The walls are said to be slightly over a meter thick.

You can walk down the main road and cut down through Sunny Brae, weaving in and out of the lovely houses to catch a glimpse of the dovecote from different angles. It's not directly accessible as it's on private land, but it can be viewed easily from many different perspectives.

Of all the dovecotes I've come across in Northumberland, this was certainly the most bib and braces, on the job, doing its dovecotey kinda thing. It wasn't ornate or decorative but just a whole load of whinstoney wonderfulness in a back garden.