Aikwood Tower is a 16th century tower house which was the residence of a branch of the Scott family for three centuries.

The lands of Aikwood were part of the Royal forest of Ettrick and are first mentioned in 1455 when James III granted them to Sir Alexander Home of Home, later 1st Lord Home. They continued to be held by the Lords Home until the forfeiture and execution in 1516 of Alexander Home, 3rd Lord Home, however a Robert Scott of Aikwood is on record in 1503.

Following Robert Scott’s death, also in 1516, the lands and forest place of Aikwod were granted by James V in 1517 to Master Michael Scott, Robert’s son and heir.

The present tower is often said to have been built around 1602 however it is first mentioned in a charter of 1541. The 1602 date is presumably derived from its appearance carved a on a re-sited voussoir arch along with the initials RS and EM. This stone may in fact commemorate the marriage of Michael Scott’s grandson, Robert Scott of Aikwood, in that year to Elspeth Murray, said to be a daughter of Murray of Elibank.

Aikwood passed to their son, Andrew, who was the last of the Scotts of Aikwood. In 1623 he and his mother resigned the lands of Aikwode, with the tower, manor, mill, mill lands and other possessions, in favour of Walter Murray of Livingston, son of Gideon Murray of Elibank. Aikwood later passed to Sir William Scott of Harden, son of Sir William Scott of Harden and Agnes Murray, Walter Murray’s sister.

The tower is marked on Blaeu’s mid-17th century map as N. Aikewood.

By the 18th century the tower had been abandoned and was used as storage for the neighbouring farm. Aikwood remained in the Scott of Harden family until the late 1940s when it passed from Henry Hepburne-Scott, 10th Lord Polwarth, to his kinsman, Walter Montagu Douglas Scott, 8th Duke of Buccleuch.

In 1989 John Scott, 9th Duke of Buccleuch, conveyed ownership of Aikwood to the former MP Sir David Steel who set about restoring the tower in the early 1990s and subsequently used it as a private residence.