Dovecote
Encyclopedia
A dovecote or dovecot is a structure intended to house pigeons or dove
s. Dovecotes may be square or circular free-standing structures or built into the end of a house or barn. They generally contain pigeonhole
s for the birds to nest. Pigeons and doves were an important food source historically in Western Europe and were kept for their eggs, flesh, and dung. In Scotland the tradition is continued in modern urban areas.
, the possession of a dovecote was a symbol of status and power and was consequently regulated by law. Only nobles had this special privilege known as droit de colombier. Many ancient manors
in France and the United Kingdom
have a dovecote (still standing or in ruins) in one section of the manorial enclosure or in nearby fields. Examples include Château de Kerjean in Brittany, France, Houchin
, France, Bodysgallen Hall
in Wales
, and Muchalls Castle
and Newark Castle
in Scotland
.
The oldest dovecotes are thought to have been the fortified dovecotes of Upper Egypt, and the domed dovecotes of Iran. In the dry regions, the droppings were in great demand and were collected on uniformly cleaned braids.
and Pliny the Elder
wrote works on pigeon farms and dovecote construction. In the city of Rome
in the time of the Republic and the Empire the internal design of the banks of pigeonholes was adapted for the purpose of disposing of cremated ashes after death: these columbaria
were generally constructed underground.
, France
, the dovecotes were built of wood in a very stylized way. Stone was the other popular building material for these old dovecotes. These stone structures were usually built in circular, square and occasionally octagonal form. Some of the medieval French abbeys had very large stone dovecotes on their grounds.
In Brittany
the dovecote was sometimes built directly into the upper walls of the farmhouse or manor-house. In rare cases, it was built into the upper gallery of the lookout tower (for example at the Toul-an-Gollet manor in Plesidy, Brittany). Dovecotes of this type are called tour-fuie in French.
Even some of the larger château-forts such as the Château de Suscinio
in Morbihan, still have a complete dovecote standing on the grounds, outside the moat and walls of the castle.
The dovecote interior, the space granted to the pigeons, is divided into a number of boulins (pigeon holes). Each boulin is the lodging of a pair of pigeons. These boulins can be in rock, brick or cob (adobe) and installed at the time of the construction of the dovecote or be in pottery (jars lying sideways, flat tiles, etc.), in braided wicker in the form of a basket or of a nest. It is the number of boulins that indicates the capacity of the dovecote. The one at the chateau d'Aulnay with its 2,000 boulins and the one at Port-d'Envaux with its 2,400 boulins of baked earth are among the largest ones in France.
In the Middle Ages, particularly in France, the possession of a colombier à pied (dovecote on the ground accessible by foot), constructed separately from the corps de logis of the manor-house (having boulins from the top down), was a privilege of the seigneurial lord. He was granted permission by his overlord to build a dovecote or two on his estate lands. For the other constructions, the dovecote rights (droit de colombier) varied according to the provinces. They had to be in proportion to the importance of the property, placed in a floor above a henhouse, a kennel, a bread oven, even a wine cellar. Generally the aviaries were integrated into a stable, a barn or a shed, and were permitted to use no more than 2.5 hectares of arable land.
Although they produced an excellent fertilizer (known as colombine), the lord's pigeons were often seen as a nuisance by the nearby peasant farmers, in particular at the time of sowing of new crops. In numerous regions (in France) where the right to possess a dovecote was reserved solely for the nobility (Brittany, Normandy, etc.), the complaint rolls very frequently recorded formal requests for the suppression of this privilege and a law for its abolition, which was finally ratified on 4 August 1789 in France.
. As an integral part of the World Heritage Site
"Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto
", dovecotes such as those at Villa Barbaro
enjoy a high level of protection.
Dovecotes in Belgium
are mostly associated with pigeon racing
. They have special features such as trap doors which allow pigeons to fly in, but not out. The Belgian-Dutch word for dovecote is "duivekot".
people of Transylvania
incorporate a dovecote into the design of their famous gates. These intricately carved wooden structures feature a large arch with a slatted door, which is meant to admit drivers of carriages and wagons (although today the visitors are probably driving cars and trucks), and smaller arch with a similar door for pedestrians. Across the top of the gate is a dovecote with 6-12 or more pigeonholes and a roof of wooden shingles or tiles.
. However it is believed that doves were not commonly kept there until after the Norman invasion. The earliest use of dovecotes in Britain may have been in the Roman period—although no certain examples are known of that date. The traditional view, however, is that dovecotes were introduced by the Normans. The earliest known examples of dove-keeping occur in Norman castles of the 12th century (for example, at Rochester Castle, Kent, where nest-holes can be seen in the keep), and documentary references also begin in the 12th century. The earliest surviving, definitely-dated free-standing dovecote in this country was built in 1326 at Garway in Herefordshire. The Welsh name colomendy has itself become a place name (similarly in Cornwall:colomen & ty = dove house).
Scotland
Early purpose-built doocots in Scotland are of a "beehive" shape, circular in plan and tapering up to a domed roof with a circular opening at the top. In the late 16th century they were superseded by the "lectern
" type, rectangular with a monopitch roof sloping fairly steeply in a suitable direction. Phantassie Doocot is an unusual example of the beehive type topped with a monopitch roof, and Finavon
Doocot of the lectern type is the largest doocot in Scotland, with 2,400 nesting boxes. Doocots were built well into the 18th century in increasingly decorative forms, then the need for them died out though some continued to be incorporated into farm buildings as ornamental features. However the 20th century saw a revival of doocot construction by pigeon fanciers
, and dramatic towers clad in black or green painted corrugated iron can still be found on wasteland near housing estates in Glasgow
and Edinburgh
.
Québec City
, Canada, has a pigeonnier which stands in a square in Old Québec; the Pigeonnier is also the name of the square itself where street artists present their shows.
The dovecote materials can be very varied and shape and dimension extremely diverse:
Inside a dovecote could be virtually empty (boulins being located in the walls from bottom to top), the interior reduced to only the structure of a rotating ladder, or "potence", allowing the collection of eggs or squabs and maintenance.
: Doocot) is a structure intended to house pigeons or dove
s. Dovecotes may be square or circular free-standing structures or built into the end of a house or barn. They generally contain pigeonhole
s for the birds to nest. Pigeons and doves were an important food source historically in Western Europe and were kept for their eggs, flesh, and dung. In Scotland the tradition is continued in modern urban areas.
, the possession of a dovecote was a symbol of status and power and was consequently regulated by law. Only nobles had this special privilege known as droit de colombier. Many ancient manors
in France and the United Kingdom
have a dovecote (still standing or in ruins) in one section of the manorial enclosure or in nearby fields. Examples include Château de Kerjean in Brittany, France, Houchin
, France, Bodysgallen Hall
in Wales
, and Muchalls Castle
and Newark Castle
in Scotland
.
The oldest dovecotes are thought to have been the fortified dovecotes of Upper Egypt, and the domed dovecotes of Iran. In the dry regions, the droppings were in great demand and were collected on uniformly cleaned braids.
and Pliny the Elder
wrote works on pigeon farms and dovecote construction. In the city of Rome
in the time of the Republic and the Empire the internal design of the banks of pigeonholes was adapted for the purpose of disposing of cremated ashes after death: these columbaria
were generally constructed underground.
, France
, the dovecotes were built of wood in a very stylized way. Stone was the other popular building material for these old dovecotes. These stone structures were usually built in circular, square and occasionally octagonal form. Some of the medieval French abbeys had very large stone dovecotes on their grounds.
In Brittany
the dovecote was sometimes built directly into the upper walls of the farmhouse or manor-house. In rare cases, it was built into the upper gallery of the lookout tower (for example at the Toul-an-Gollet manor in Plesidy, Brittany). Dovecotes of this type are called tour-fuie in French.
Even some of the larger château-forts such as the Château de Suscinio
in Morbihan, still have a complete dovecote standing on the grounds, outside the moat and walls of the castle.
The dovecote interior, the space granted to the pigeons, is divided into a number of boulins (pigeon holes). Each boulin is the lodging of a pair of pigeons. These boulins can be in rock, brick or cob (adobe) and installed at the time of the construction of the dovecote or be in pottery (jars lying sideways, flat tiles, etc.), in braided wicker in the form of a basket or of a nest. It is the number of boulins that indicates the capacity of the dovecote. The one at the chateau d'Aulnay with its 2,000 boulins and the one at Port-d'Envaux with its 2,400 boulins of baked earth are among the largest ones in France.
In the Middle Ages, particularly in France, the possession of a colombier à pied (dovecote on the ground accessible by foot), constructed separately from the corps de logis of the manor-house (having boulins from the top down), was a privilege of the seigneurial lord. He was granted permission by his overlord to build a dovecote or two on his estate lands. For the other constructions, the dovecote rights (droit de colombier) varied according to the provinces. They had to be in proportion to the importance of the property, placed in a floor above a henhouse, a kennel, a bread oven, even a wine cellar. Generally the aviaries were integrated into a stable, a barn or a shed, and were permitted to use no more than 2.5 hectares of arable land.
Although they produced an excellent fertilizer (known as colombine), the lord's pigeons were often seen as a nuisance by the nearby peasant farmers, in particular at the time of sowing of new crops. In numerous regions (in France) where the right to possess a dovecote was reserved solely for the nobility (Brittany, Normandy, etc.), the complaint rolls very frequently recorded formal requests for the suppression of this privilege and a law for its abolition, which was finally ratified on 4 August 1789 in France.
. As an integral part of the World Heritage Site
"Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto
", dovecotes such as those at Villa Barbaro
enjoy a high level of protection.
Dovecotes in Belgium
are mostly associated with pigeon racing
. They have special features such as trap doors which allow pigeons to fly in, but not out. The Belgian-Dutch word for dovecote is "duivekot".
people of Transylvania
incorporate a dovecote into the design of their famous gates. These intricately carved wooden structures feature a large arch with a slatted door, which is meant to admit drivers of carriages and wagons (although today the visitors are probably driving cars and trucks), and smaller arch with a similar door for pedestrians. Across the top of the gate is a dovecote with 6-12 or more pigeonholes and a roof of wooden shingles or tiles.
. However it is believed that doves were not commonly kept there until after the Norman invasion. The earliest use of dovecotes in Britain may have been in the Roman period—although no certain examples are known of that date. The traditional view, however, is that dovecotes were introduced by the Normans. The earliest known examples of dove-keeping occur in Norman castles of the 12th century (for example, at Rochester Castle, Kent, where nest-holes can be seen in the keep), and documentary references also begin in the 12th century. The earliest surviving, definitely-dated free-standing dovecote in this country was built in 1326 at Garway in Herefordshire. The Welsh name colomendy has itself become a place name (similarly in Cornwall:colomen & ty = dove house).
Scotland
Early purpose-built doocots in Scotland are of a "beehive" shape, circular in plan and tapering up to a domed roof with a circular opening at the top. In the late 16th century they were superseded by the "lectern
" type, rectangular with a monopitch roof sloping fairly steeply in a suitable direction. Phantassie Doocot is an unusual example of the beehive type topped with a monopitch roof, and Finavon
Doocot of the lectern type is the largest doocot in Scotland, with 2,400 nesting boxes. Doocots were built well into the 18th century in increasingly decorative forms, then the need for them died out though some continued to be incorporated into farm buildings as ornamental features. However the 20th century saw a revival of doocot construction by pigeon fanciers
, and dramatic towers clad in black or green painted corrugated iron can still be found on wasteland near housing estates in Glasgow
and Edinburgh
.
Québec City
, Canada, has a pigeonnier which stands in a square in Old Québec; the Pigeonnier is also the name of the square itself where street artists present their shows.
The dovecote materials can be very varied and shape and dimension extremely diverse:
Inside a dovecote could be virtually empty (boulins being located in the walls from bottom to top), the interior reduced to only the structure of a rotating ladder, or "potence", allowing the collection of eggs or squabs and maintenance.
: Doocot) is a structure intended to house pigeons or dove
s. Dovecotes may be square or circular free-standing structures or built into the end of a house or barn. They generally contain pigeonhole
s for the birds to nest. Pigeons and doves were an important food source historically in Western Europe and were kept for their eggs, flesh, and dung. In Scotland the tradition is continued in modern urban areas.
, the possession of a dovecote was a symbol of status and power and was consequently regulated by law. Only nobles had this special privilege known as droit de colombier. Many ancient manors
in France and the United Kingdom
have a dovecote (still standing or in ruins) in one section of the manorial enclosure or in nearby fields. Examples include Château de Kerjean in Brittany, France, Houchin
, France, Bodysgallen Hall
in Wales
, and Muchalls Castle
and Newark Castle
in Scotland
.
The oldest dovecotes are thought to have been the fortified dovecotes of Upper Egypt, and the domed dovecotes of Iran. In the dry regions, the droppings were in great demand and were collected on uniformly cleaned braids.
and Pliny the Elder
wrote works on pigeon farms and dovecote construction. In the city of Rome
in the time of the Republic and the Empire the internal design of the banks of pigeonholes was adapted for the purpose of disposing of cremated ashes after death: these columbaria
were generally constructed underground.
, France
, the dovecotes were built of wood in a very stylized way. Stone was the other popular building material for these old dovecotes. These stone structures were usually built in circular, square and occasionally octagonal form. Some of the medieval French abbeys had very large stone dovecotes on their grounds.
In Brittany
the dovecote was sometimes built directly into the upper walls of the farmhouse or manor-house. In rare cases, it was built into the upper gallery of the lookout tower (for example at the Toul-an-Gollet manor in Plesidy, Brittany). Dovecotes of this type are called tour-fuie in French.
Even some of the larger château-forts such as the Château de Suscinio
in Morbihan, still have a complete dovecote standing on the grounds, outside the moat and walls of the castle.
The dovecote interior, the space granted to the pigeons, is divided into a number of boulins (pigeon holes). Each boulin is the lodging of a pair of pigeons. These boulins can be in rock, brick or cob (adobe) and installed at the time of the construction of the dovecote or be in pottery (jars lying sideways, flat tiles, etc.), in braided wicker in the form of a basket or of a nest. It is the number of boulins that indicates the capacity of the dovecote. The one at the chateau d'Aulnay with its 2,000 boulins and the one at Port-d'Envaux with its 2,400 boulins of baked earth are among the largest ones in France.
In the Middle Ages, particularly in France, the possession of a colombier à pied (dovecote on the ground accessible by foot), constructed separately from the corps de logis of the manor-house (having boulins from the top down), was a privilege of the seigneurial lord. He was granted permission by his overlord to build a dovecote or two on his estate lands. For the other constructions, the dovecote rights (droit de colombier) varied according to the provinces. They had to be in proportion to the importance of the property, placed in a floor above a henhouse, a kennel, a bread oven, even a wine cellar. Generally the aviaries were integrated into a stable, a barn or a shed, and were permitted to use no more than 2.5 hectares of arable land.
Although they produced an excellent fertilizer (known as colombine), the lord's pigeons were often seen as a nuisance by the nearby peasant farmers, in particular at the time of sowing of new crops. In numerous regions (in France) where the right to possess a dovecote was reserved solely for the nobility (Brittany, Normandy, etc.), the complaint rolls very frequently recorded formal requests for the suppression of this privilege and a law for its abolition, which was finally ratified on 4 August 1789 in France.
. As an integral part of the World Heritage Site
"Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto
", dovecotes such as those at Villa Barbaro
enjoy a high level of protection.
Dovecotes in Belgium
are mostly associated with pigeon racing
. They have special features such as trap doors which allow pigeons to fly in, but not out. The Belgian-Dutch word for dovecote is "duivekot".
people of Transylvania
incorporate a dovecote into the design of their famous gates. These intricately carved wooden structures feature a large arch with a slatted door, which is meant to admit drivers of carriages and wagons (although today the visitors are probably driving cars and trucks), and smaller arch with a similar door for pedestrians. Across the top of the gate is a dovecote with 6-12 or more pigeonholes and a roof of wooden shingles or tiles.
. However it is believed that doves were not commonly kept there until after the Norman invasion. The earliest use of dovecotes in Britain may have been in the Roman period—although no certain examples are known of that date. The traditional view, however, is that dovecotes were introduced by the Normans. The earliest known examples of dove-keeping occur in Norman castles of the 12th century (for example, at Rochester Castle, Kent, where nest-holes can be seen in the keep), and documentary references also begin in the 12th century. The earliest surviving, definitely-dated free-standing dovecote in this country was built in 1326 at Garway in Herefordshire. The Welsh name colomendy has itself become a place name (similarly in Cornwall:colomen & ty = dove house).
Scotland
Early purpose-built doocots in Scotland are of a "beehive" shape, circular in plan and tapering up to a domed roof with a circular opening at the top. In the late 16th century they were superseded by the "lectern
" type, rectangular with a monopitch roof sloping fairly steeply in a suitable direction. Phantassie Doocot is an unusual example of the beehive type topped with a monopitch roof, and Finavon
Doocot of the lectern type is the largest doocot in Scotland, with 2,400 nesting boxes. Doocots were built well into the 18th century in increasingly decorative forms, then the need for them died out though some continued to be incorporated into farm buildings as ornamental features. However the 20th century saw a revival of doocot construction by pigeon fanciers
, and dramatic towers clad in black or green painted corrugated iron can still be found on wasteland near housing estates in Glasgow
and Edinburgh
.
Québec City
, Canada, has a pigeonnier which stands in a square in Old Québec; the Pigeonnier is also the name of the square itself where street artists present their shows.
The dovecote materials can be very varied and shape and dimension extremely diverse:
Inside a dovecote could be virtually empty (boulins being located in the walls from bottom to top), the interior reduced to only the structure of a rotating ladder, or "potence", allowing the collection of eggs or squabs and maintenance.
: Doocot) is a structure intended to house pigeons or dove
s. Dovecotes may be square or circular free-standing structures or built into the end of a house or barn. They generally contain pigeonhole
s for the birds to nest. Pigeons and doves were an important food source historically in Western Europe and were kept for their eggs, flesh, and dung. In Scotland the tradition is continued in modern urban areas.
, the possession of a dovecote was a symbol of status and power and was consequently regulated by law. Only nobles had this special privilege known as droit de colombier. Many ancient manors
in France and the United Kingdom
have a dovecote (still standing or in ruins) in one section of the manorial enclosure or in nearby fields. Examples include Château de Kerjean in Brittany, France, Houchin
, France, Bodysgallen Hall
in Wales
, and Muchalls Castle
and Newark Castle
in Scotland
.
The oldest dovecotes are thought to have been the fortified dovecotes of Upper Egypt, and the domed dovecotes of Iran. In the dry regions, the droppings were in great demand and were collected on uniformly cleaned braids.
and Pliny the Elder
wrote works on pigeon farms and dovecote construction. In the city of Rome
in the time of the Republic and the Empire the internal design of the banks of pigeonholes was adapted for the purpose of disposing of cremated ashes after death: these columbaria
were generally constructed underground.
, France
, the dovecotes were built of wood in a very stylized way. Stone was the other popular building material for these old dovecotes. These stone structures were usually built in circular, square and occasionally octagonal form. Some of the medieval French abbeys had very large stone dovecotes on their grounds.
In Brittany
the dovecote was sometimes built directly into the upper walls of the farmhouse or manor-house. In rare cases, it was built into the upper gallery of the lookout tower (for example at the Toul-an-Gollet manor in Plesidy, Brittany). Dovecotes of this type are called tour-fuie in French.
Even some of the larger château-forts such as the Château de Suscinio
in Morbihan, still have a complete dovecote standing on the grounds, outside the moat and walls of the castle.
The dovecote interior, the space granted to the pigeons, is divided into a number of boulins (pigeon holes). Each boulin is the lodging of a pair of pigeons. These boulins can be in rock, brick or cob (adobe) and installed at the time of the construction of the dovecote or be in pottery (jars lying sideways, flat tiles, etc.), in braided wicker in the form of a basket or of a nest. It is the number of boulins that indicates the capacity of the dovecote. The one at the chateau d'Aulnay with its 2,000 boulins and the one at Port-d'Envaux with its 2,400 boulins of baked earth are among the largest ones in France.
In the Middle Ages, particularly in France, the possession of a colombier à pied (dovecote on the ground accessible by foot), constructed separately from the corps de logis of the manor-house (having boulins from the top down), was a privilege of the seigneurial lord. He was granted permission by his overlord to build a dovecote or two on his estate lands. For the other constructions, the dovecote rights (droit de colombier) varied according to the provinces. They had to be in proportion to the importance of the property, placed in a floor above a henhouse, a kennel, a bread oven, even a wine cellar. Generally the aviaries were integrated into a stable, a barn or a shed, and were permitted to use no more than 2.5 hectares of arable land.
Although they produced an excellent fertilizer (known as colombine), the lord's pigeons were often seen as a nuisance by the nearby peasant farmers, in particular at the time of sowing of new crops. In numerous regions (in France) where the right to possess a dovecote was reserved solely for the nobility (Brittany, Normandy, etc.), the complaint rolls very frequently recorded formal requests for the suppression of this privilege and a law for its abolition, which was finally ratified on 4 August 1789 in France.
. As an integral part of the World Heritage Site
"Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto
", dovecotes such as those at Villa Barbaro
enjoy a high level of protection.
Dovecotes in Belgium
are mostly associated with pigeon racing
. They have special features such as trap doors which allow pigeons to fly in, but not out. The Belgian-Dutch word for dovecote is "duivekot".
people of Transylvania
incorporate a dovecote into the design of their famous gates. These intricately carved wooden structures feature a large arch with a slatted door, which is meant to admit drivers of carriages and wagons (although today the visitors are probably driving cars and trucks), and smaller arch with a similar door for pedestrians. Across the top of the gate is a dovecote with 6-12 or more pigeonholes and a roof of wooden shingles or tiles.
. However it is believed that doves were not commonly kept there until after the Norman invasion. The earliest use of dovecotes in Britain may have been in the Roman period—although no certain examples are known of that date. The traditional view, however, is that dovecotes were introduced by the Normans. The earliest known examples of dove-keeping occur in Norman castles of the 12th century (for example, at Rochester Castle, Kent, where nest-holes can be seen in the keep), and documentary references also begin in the 12th century. The earliest surviving, definitely-dated free-standing dovecote in this country was built in 1326 at Garway in Herefordshire. The Welsh name colomendy has itself become a place name (similarly in Cornwall:colomen & ty = dove house).
Scotland
Early purpose-built doocots in Scotland are of a "beehive" shape, circular in plan and tapering up to a domed roof with a circular opening at the top. In the late 16th century they were superseded by the "lectern
" type, rectangular with a monopitch roof sloping fairly steeply in a suitable direction. Phantassie Doocot is an unusual example of the beehive type topped with a monopitch roof, and Finavon
Doocot of the lectern type is the largest doocot in Scotland, with 2,400 nesting boxes. Doocots were built well into the 18th century in increasingly decorative forms, then the need for them died out though some continued to be incorporated into farm buildings as ornamental features. However the 20th century saw a revival of doocot construction by pigeon fanciers
, and dramatic towers clad in black or green painted corrugated iron can still be found on wasteland near housing estates in Glasgow
and Edinburgh
.
Québec City
, Canada, has a pigeonnier which stands in a square in Old Québec; the Pigeonnier is also the name of the square itself where street artists present their shows.
The dovecote materials can be very varied and shape and dimension extremely diverse:
Inside a dovecote could be virtually empty (boulins being located in the walls from bottom to top), the interior reduced to only the structure of a rotating ladder, or "potence", allowing the collection of eggs or squabs and maintenance.
: Doocot) is a structure intended to house pigeons or dove
s. Dovecotes may be square or circular free-standing structures or built into the end of a house or barn. They generally contain pigeonhole
s for the birds to nest. Pigeons and doves were an important food source historically in Western Europe and were kept for their eggs, flesh, and dung. In Scotland the tradition is continued in modern urban areas.
, the possession of a dovecote was a symbol of status and power and was consequently regulated by law. Only nobles had this special privilege known as droit de colombier. Many ancient manors
in France and the United Kingdom
have a dovecote (still standing or in ruins) in one section of the manorial enclosure or in nearby fields. Examples include Château de Kerjean in Brittany, France, Houchin
, France, Bodysgallen Hall
in Wales
, and Muchalls Castle
and Newark Castle
in Scotland
.
The oldest dovecotes are thought to have been the fortified dovecotes of Upper Egypt, and the domed dovecotes of Iran. In the dry regions, the droppings were in great demand and were collected on uniformly cleaned braids.
and Pliny the Elder
wrote works on pigeon farms and dovecote construction. In the city of Rome
in the time of the Republic and the Empire the internal design of the banks of pigeonholes was adapted for the purpose of disposing of cremated ashes after death: these columbaria
were generally constructed underground.
, France
, the dovecotes were built of wood in a very stylized way. Stone was the other popular building material for these old dovecotes. These stone structures were usually built in circular, square and occasionally octagonal form. Some of the medieval French abbeys had very large stone dovecotes on their grounds.
In Brittany
the dovecote was sometimes built directly into the upper walls of the farmhouse or manor-house. In rare cases, it was built into the upper gallery of the lookout tower (for example at the Toul-an-Gollet manor in Plesidy, Brittany). Dovecotes of this type are called tour-fuie in French.
Even some of the larger château-forts such as the Château de Suscinio
in Morbihan, still have a complete dovecote standing on the grounds, outside the moat and walls of the castle.
The dovecote interior, the space granted to the pigeons, is divided into a number of boulins (pigeon holes). Each boulin is the lodging of a pair of pigeons. These boulins can be in rock, brick or cob (adobe) and installed at the time of the construction of the dovecote or be in pottery (jars lying sideways, flat tiles, etc.), in braided wicker in the form of a basket or of a nest. It is the number of boulins that indicates the capacity of the dovecote. The one at the chateau d'Aulnay with its 2,000 boulins and the one at Port-d'Envaux with its 2,400 boulins of baked earth are among the largest ones in France.
In the Middle Ages, particularly in France, the possession of a colombier à pied (dovecote on the ground accessible by foot), constructed separately from the corps de logis of the manor-house (having boulins from the top down), was a privilege of the seigneurial lord. He was granted permission by his overlord to build a dovecote or two on his estate lands. For the other constructions, the dovecote rights (droit de colombier) varied according to the provinces. They had to be in proportion to the importance of the property, placed in a floor above a henhouse, a kennel, a bread oven, even a wine cellar. Generally the aviaries were integrated into a stable, a barn or a shed, and were permitted to use no more than 2.5 hectares of arable land.
Although they produced an excellent fertilizer (known as colombine), the lord's pigeons were often seen as a nuisance by the nearby peasant farmers, in particular at the time of sowing of new crops. In numerous regions (in France) where the right to possess a dovecote was reserved solely for the nobility (Brittany, Normandy, etc.), the complaint rolls very frequently recorded formal requests for the suppression of this privilege and a law for its abolition, which was finally ratified on 4 August 1789 in France.
. As an integral part of the World Heritage Site
"Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto
", dovecotes such as those at Villa Barbaro
enjoy a high level of protection.
Dovecotes in Belgium
are mostly associated with pigeon racing
. They have special features such as trap doors which allow pigeons to fly in, but not out. The Belgian-Dutch word for dovecote is "duivekot".
people of Transylvania
incorporate a dovecote into the design of their famous gates. These intricately carved wooden structures feature a large arch with a slatted door, which is meant to admit drivers of carriages and wagons (although today the visitors are probably driving cars and trucks), and smaller arch with a similar door for pedestrians. Across the top of the gate is a dovecote with 6-12 or more pigeonholes and a roof of wooden shingles or tiles.
. However it is believed that doves were not commonly kept there until after the Norman invasion. The earliest use of dovecotes in Britain may have been in the Roman period—although no certain examples are known of that date. The traditional view, however, is that dovecotes were introduced by the Normans. The earliest known examples of dove-keeping occur in Norman castles of the 12th century (for example, at Rochester Castle, Kent, where nest-holes can be seen in the keep), and documentary references also begin in the 12th century. The earliest surviving, definitely-dated free-standing dovecote in this country was built in 1326 at Garway in Herefordshire. The Welsh name colomendy has itself become a place name (similarly in Cornwall:colomen & ty = dove house).
Scotland
Early purpose-built doocots in Scotland are of a "beehive" shape, circular in plan and tapering up to a domed roof with a circular opening at the top. In the late 16th century they were superseded by the "lectern
" type, rectangular with a monopitch roof sloping fairly steeply in a suitable direction. Phantassie Doocot is an unusual example of the beehive type topped with a monopitch roof, and Finavon
Doocot of the lectern type is the largest doocot in Scotland, with 2,400 nesting boxes. Doocots were built well into the 18th century in increasingly decorative forms, then the need for them died out though some continued to be incorporated into farm buildings as ornamental features. However the 20th century saw a revival of doocot construction by pigeon fanciers
, and dramatic towers clad in black or green painted corrugated iron can still be found on wasteland near housing estates in Glasgow
and Edinburgh
.
Image:Eglintondoocot.JPG|The doocot (dovecot) at the site of the old Eglinton Mains farm in Ayrshire, Scotland.
Image:Doocotstables.JPG|The doocot at the Eglinton castle stables courtyard.
Image:Doocotnests.JPG|The Eglinton doocot nesting boxes.
Image:Milton mcdowall mills.jpg|Mills at Milton of Campsie
with a dovecot in the background.
File:Abbaye_Saint-Vincent_(Le_Mans)_Facade_Sud.jpg|Dovecote at the Abbaye Saint-Vincent in Le Mans, France
File:Dovecote_HHPP_purfleet.JPG|The Dovecote at High House Purfleet
, Essex
Québec City
, Canada, has a pigeonnier which stands in a square in Old Québec; the Pigeonnier is also the name of the square itself where street artists present their shows.
The dovecote materials can be very varied and shape and dimension extremely diverse:
Inside a dovecote could be virtually empty (boulins being located in the walls from bottom to top), the interior reduced to only the structure of a rotating ladder, or "potence", allowing the collection of eggs or squabs and maintenance.
: Doocot) is a structure intended to house pigeons or dove
s. Dovecotes may be square or circular free-standing structures or built into the end of a house or barn. They generally contain pigeonhole
s for the birds to nest. Pigeons and doves were an important food source historically in Western Europe and were kept for their eggs, flesh, and dung. In Scotland the tradition is continued in modern urban areas.
, the possession of a dovecote was a symbol of status and power and was consequently regulated by law. Only nobles had this special privilege known as droit de colombier. Many ancient manors
in France and the United Kingdom
have a dovecote (still standing or in ruins) in one section of the manorial enclosure or in nearby fields. Examples include Château de Kerjean in Brittany, France, Houchin
, France, Bodysgallen Hall
in Wales
, and Muchalls Castle
and Newark Castle
in Scotland
.
The oldest dovecotes are thought to have been the fortified dovecotes of Upper Egypt, and the domed dovecotes of Iran. In the dry regions, the droppings were in great demand and were collected on uniformly cleaned braids.
and Pliny the Elder
wrote works on pigeon farms and dovecote construction. In the city of Rome
in the time of the Republic and the Empire the internal design of the banks of pigeonholes was adapted for the purpose of disposing of cremated ashes after death: these columbaria
were generally constructed underground.
, France
, the dovecotes were built of wood in a very stylized way. Stone was the other popular building material for these old dovecotes. These stone structures were usually built in circular, square and occasionally octagonal form. Some of the medieval French abbeys had very large stone dovecotes on their grounds.
In Brittany
the dovecote was sometimes built directly into the upper walls of the farmhouse or manor-house. In rare cases, it was built into the upper gallery of the lookout tower (for example at the Toul-an-Gollet manor in Plesidy, Brittany). Dovecotes of this type are called tour-fuie in French.
Even some of the larger château-forts such as the Château de Suscinio
in Morbihan, still have a complete dovecote standing on the grounds, outside the moat and walls of the castle.
The dovecote interior, the space granted to the pigeons, is divided into a number of boulins (pigeon holes). Each boulin is the lodging of a pair of pigeons. These boulins can be in rock, brick or cob (adobe) and installed at the time of the construction of the dovecote or be in pottery (jars lying sideways, flat tiles, etc.), in braided wicker in the form of a basket or of a nest. It is the number of boulins that indicates the capacity of the dovecote. The one at the chateau d'Aulnay with its 2,000 boulins and the one at Port-d'Envaux with its 2,400 boulins of baked earth are among the largest ones in France.
In the Middle Ages, particularly in France, the possession of a colombier à pied (dovecote on the ground accessible by foot), constructed separately from the corps de logis of the manor-house (having boulins from the top down), was a privilege of the seigneurial lord. He was granted permission by his overlord to build a dovecote or two on his estate lands. For the other constructions, the dovecote rights (droit de colombier) varied according to the provinces. They had to be in proportion to the importance of the property, placed in a floor above a henhouse, a kennel, a bread oven, even a wine cellar. Generally the aviaries were integrated into a stable, a barn or a shed, and were permitted to use no more than 2.5 hectares of arable land.
Although they produced an excellent fertilizer (known as colombine), the lord's pigeons were often seen as a nuisance by the nearby peasant farmers, in particular at the time of sowing of new crops. In numerous regions (in France) where the right to possess a dovecote was reserved solely for the nobility (Brittany, Normandy, etc.), the complaint rolls very frequently recorded formal requests for the suppression of this privilege and a law for its abolition, which was finally ratified on 4 August 1789 in France.
. As an integral part of the World Heritage Site
"Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto
", dovecotes such as those at Villa Barbaro
enjoy a high level of protection.
Dovecotes in Belgium
are mostly associated with pigeon racing
. They have special features such as trap doors which allow pigeons to fly in, but not out. The Belgian-Dutch word for dovecote is "duivekot".
people of Transylvania
incorporate a dovecote into the design of their famous gates. These intricately carved wooden structures feature a large arch with a slatted door, which is meant to admit drivers of carriages and wagons (although today the visitors are probably driving cars and trucks), and smaller arch with a similar door for pedestrians. Across the top of the gate is a dovecote with 6-12 or more pigeonholes and a roof of wooden shingles or tiles.
. However it is believed that doves were not commonly kept there until after the Norman invasion. The earliest use of dovecotes in Britain may have been in the Roman period—although no certain examples are known of that date. The traditional view, however, is that dovecotes were introduced by the Normans. The earliest known examples of dove-keeping occur in Norman castles of the 12th century (for example, at Rochester Castle, Kent, where nest-holes can be seen in the keep), and documentary references also begin in the 12th century. The earliest surviving, definitely-dated free-standing dovecote in this country was built in 1326 at Garway in Herefordshire. The Welsh name colomendy has itself become a place name (similarly in Cornwall:colomen & ty = dove house).
Scotland
Early purpose-built doocots in Scotland are of a "beehive" shape, circular in plan and tapering up to a domed roof with a circular opening at the top. In the late 16th century they were superseded by the "lectern
" type, rectangular with a monopitch roof sloping fairly steeply in a suitable direction. Phantassie Doocot is an unusual example of the beehive type topped with a monopitch roof, and Finavon
Doocot of the lectern type is the largest doocot in Scotland, with 2,400 nesting boxes. Doocots were built well into the 18th century in increasingly decorative forms, then the need for them died out though some continued to be incorporated into farm buildings as ornamental features. However the 20th century saw a revival of doocot construction by pigeon fanciers
, and dramatic towers clad in black or green painted corrugated iron can still be found on wasteland near housing estates in Glasgow
and Edinburgh
.
Image:Eglintondoocot.JPG|The doocot (dovecot) at the site of the old Eglinton Mains farm in Ayrshire, Scotland.
Image:Doocotstables.JPG|The doocot at the Eglinton castle stables courtyard.
Image:Doocotnests.JPG|The Eglinton doocot nesting boxes.
Image:Milton mcdowall mills.jpg|Mills at Milton of Campsie
with a dovecot in the background.
File:Abbaye_Saint-Vincent_(Le_Mans)_Facade_Sud.jpg|Dovecote at the Abbaye Saint-Vincent in Le Mans, France
File:Dovecote_HHPP_purfleet.JPG|The Dovecote at High House Purfleet
, Essex
Québec City
, Canada, has a pigeonnier which stands in a square in Old Québec; the Pigeonnier is also the name of the square itself where street artists present their shows.
The dovecote materials can be very varied and shape and dimension extremely diverse:
Inside a dovecote could be virtually empty (boulins being located in the walls from bottom to top), the interior reduced to only the structure of a rotating ladder, or "potence", allowing the collection of eggs or squabs and maintenance.
: Doocot) is a structure intended to house pigeons or dove
s. Dovecotes may be square or circular free-standing structures or built into the end of a house or barn. They generally contain pigeonhole
s for the birds to nest. Pigeons and doves were an important food source historically in Western Europe and were kept for their eggs, flesh, and dung. In Scotland the tradition is continued in modern urban areas.
, the possession of a dovecote was a symbol of status and power and was consequently regulated by law. Only nobles had this special privilege known as droit de colombier. Many ancient manors
in France and the United Kingdom
have a dovecote (still standing or in ruins) in one section of the manorial enclosure or in nearby fields. Examples include Château de Kerjean in Brittany, France, Houchin
, France, Bodysgallen Hall
in Wales
, and Muchalls Castle
and Newark Castle
in Scotland
.
The oldest dovecotes are thought to have been the fortified dovecotes of Upper Egypt, and the domed dovecotes of Iran. In the dry regions, the droppings were in great demand and were collected on uniformly cleaned braids.
and Pliny the Elder
wrote works on pigeon farms and dovecote construction. In the city of Rome
in the time of the Republic and the Empire the internal design of the banks of pigeonholes was adapted for the purpose of disposing of cremated ashes after death: these columbaria
were generally constructed underground.
, France
, the dovecotes were built of wood in a very stylized way. Stone was the other popular building material for these old dovecotes. These stone structures were usually built in circular, square and occasionally octagonal form. Some of the medieval French abbeys had very large stone dovecotes on their grounds.
In Brittany
the dovecote was sometimes built directly into the upper walls of the farmhouse or manor-house. In rare cases, it was built into the upper gallery of the lookout tower (for example at the Toul-an-Gollet manor in Plesidy, Brittany). Dovecotes of this type are called tour-fuie in French.
Even some of the larger château-forts such as the Château de Suscinio
in Morbihan, still have a complete dovecote standing on the grounds, outside the moat and walls of the castle.
The dovecote interior, the space granted to the pigeons, is divided into a number of boulins (pigeon holes). Each boulin is the lodging of a pair of pigeons. These boulins can be in rock, brick or cob (adobe) and installed at the time of the construction of the dovecote or be in pottery (jars lying sideways, flat tiles, etc.), in braided wicker in the form of a basket or of a nest. It is the number of boulins that indicates the capacity of the dovecote. The one at the chateau d'Aulnay with its 2,000 boulins and the one at Port-d'Envaux with its 2,400 boulins of baked earth are among the largest ones in France.
In the Middle Ages, particularly in France, the possession of a colombier à pied (dovecote on the ground accessible by foot), constructed separately from the corps de logis of the manor-house (having boulins from the top down), was a privilege of the seigneurial lord. He was granted permission by his overlord to build a dovecote or two on his estate lands. For the other constructions, the dovecote rights (droit de colombier) varied according to the provinces. They had to be in proportion to the importance of the property, placed in a floor above a henhouse, a kennel, a bread oven, even a wine cellar. Generally the aviaries were integrated into a stable, a barn or a shed, and were permitted to use no more than 2.5 hectares of arable land.
Although they produced an excellent fertilizer (known as colombine), the lord's pigeons were often seen as a nuisance by the nearby peasant farmers, in particular at the time of sowing of new crops. In numerous regions (in France) where the right to possess a dovecote was reserved solely for the nobility (Brittany, Normandy, etc.), the complaint rolls very frequently recorded formal requests for the suppression of this privilege and a law for its abolition, which was finally ratified on 4 August 1789 in France.
. As an integral part of the World Heritage Site
"Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto
", dovecotes such as those at Villa Barbaro
enjoy a high level of protection.
Dovecotes in Belgium
are mostly associated with pigeon racing
. They have special features such as trap doors which allow pigeons to fly in, but not out. The Belgian-Dutch word for dovecote is "duivekot".
people of Transylvania
incorporate a dovecote into the design of their famous gates. These intricately carved wooden structures feature a large arch with a slatted door, which is meant to admit drivers of carriages and wagons (although today the visitors are probably driving cars and trucks), and smaller arch with a similar door for pedestrians. Across the top of the gate is a dovecote with 6-12 or more pigeonholes and a roof of wooden shingles or tiles.
. However it is believed that doves were not commonly kept there until after the Norman invasion. The earliest use of dovecotes in Britain may have been in the Roman period—although no certain examples are known of that date. The traditional view, however, is that dovecotes were introduced by the Normans. The earliest known examples of dove-keeping occur in Norman castles of the 12th century (for example, at Rochester Castle, Kent, where nest-holes can be seen in the keep), and documentary references also begin in the 12th century. The earliest surviving, definitely-dated free-standing dovecote in this country was built in 1326 at Garway in Herefordshire. The Welsh name colomendy has itself become a place name (similarly in Cornwall:colomen & ty = dove house).
Scotland
Early purpose-built doocots in Scotland are of a "beehive" shape, circular in plan and tapering up to a domed roof with a circular opening at the top. In the late 16th century they were superseded by the "lectern
" type, rectangular with a monopitch roof sloping fairly steeply in a suitable direction. Phantassie Doocot is an unusual example of the beehive type topped with a monopitch roof, and Finavon
Doocot of the lectern type is the largest doocot in Scotland, with 2,400 nesting boxes. Doocots were built well into the 18th century in increasingly decorative forms, then the need for them died out though some continued to be incorporated into farm buildings as ornamental features. However the 20th century saw a revival of doocot construction by pigeon fanciers
, and dramatic towers clad in black or green painted corrugated iron can still be found on wasteland near housing estates in Glasgow
and Edinburgh
.
Québec City
, Canada, has a pigeonnier which stands in a square in Old Québec; the Pigeonnier is also the name of the square itself where street artists present their shows.
The dovecote materials can be very varied and shape and dimension extremely diverse:
Inside a dovecote could be virtually empty (boulins being located in the walls from bottom to top), the interior reduced to only the structure of a rotating ladder, or "potence", allowing the collection of eggs or squabs and maintenance.
: Doocot) is a structure intended to house pigeons or dove
s. Dovecotes may be square or circular free-standing structures or built into the end of a house or barn. They generally contain pigeonhole
s for the birds to nest. Pigeons and doves were an important food source historically in Western Europe and were kept for their eggs, flesh, and dung. In Scotland the tradition is continued in modern urban areas.
, the possession of a dovecote was a symbol of status and power and was consequently regulated by law. Only nobles had this special privilege known as droit de colombier. Many ancient manors
in France and the United Kingdom
have a dovecote (still standing or in ruins) in one section of the manorial enclosure or in nearby fields. Examples include Château de Kerjean in Brittany, France, Houchin
, France, Bodysgallen Hall
in Wales
, and Muchalls Castle
and Newark Castle
in Scotland
.
The oldest dovecotes are thought to have been the fortified dovecotes of Upper Egypt, and the domed dovecotes of Iran. In the dry regions, the droppings were in great demand and were collected on uniformly cleaned braids.
and Pliny the Elder
wrote works on pigeon farms and dovecote construction. In the city of Rome
in the time of the Republic and the Empire the internal design of the banks of pigeonholes was adapted for the purpose of disposing of cremated ashes after death: these columbaria
were generally constructed underground.
, France
, the dovecotes were built of wood in a very stylized way. Stone was the other popular building material for these old dovecotes. These stone structures were usually built in circular, square and occasionally octagonal form. Some of the medieval French abbeys had very large stone dovecotes on their grounds.
In Brittany
the dovecote was sometimes built directly into the upper walls of the farmhouse or manor-house. In rare cases, it was built into the upper gallery of the lookout tower (for example at the Toul-an-Gollet manor in Plesidy, Brittany). Dovecotes of this type are called tour-fuie in French.
Even some of the larger château-forts such as the Château de Suscinio
in Morbihan, still have a complete dovecote standing on the grounds, outside the moat and walls of the castle.
The dovecote interior, the space granted to the pigeons, is divided into a number of boulins (pigeon holes). Each boulin is the lodging of a pair of pigeons. These boulins can be in rock, brick or cob (adobe) and installed at the time of the construction of the dovecote or be in pottery (jars lying sideways, flat tiles, etc.), in braided wicker in the form of a basket or of a nest. It is the number of boulins that indicates the capacity of the dovecote. The one at the chateau d'Aulnay with its 2,000 boulins and the one at Port-d'Envaux with its 2,400 boulins of baked earth are among the largest ones in France.
In the Middle Ages, particularly in France, the possession of a colombier à pied (dovecote on the ground accessible by foot), constructed separately from the corps de logis of the manor-house (having boulins from the top down), was a privilege of the seigneurial lord. He was granted permission by his overlord to build a dovecote or two on his estate lands. For the other constructions, the dovecote rights (droit de colombier) varied according to the provinces. They had to be in proportion to the importance of the property, placed in a floor above a henhouse, a kennel, a bread oven, even a wine cellar. Generally the aviaries were integrated into a stable, a barn or a shed, and were permitted to use no more than 2.5 hectares of arable land.
Although they produced an excellent fertilizer (known as colombine), the lord's pigeons were often seen as a nuisance by the nearby peasant farmers, in particular at the time of sowing of new crops. In numerous regions (in France) where the right to possess a dovecote was reserved solely for the nobility (Brittany, Normandy, etc.), the complaint rolls very frequently recorded formal requests for the suppression of this privilege and a law for its abolition, which was finally ratified on 4 August 1789 in France.
. As an integral part of the World Heritage Site
"Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto
", dovecotes such as those at Villa Barbaro
enjoy a high level of protection.
Dovecotes in Belgium
are mostly associated with pigeon racing
. They have special features such as trap doors which allow pigeons to fly in, but not out. The Belgian-Dutch word for dovecote is "duivekot".
people of Transylvania
incorporate a dovecote into the design of their famous gates. These intricately carved wooden structures feature a large arch with a slatted door, which is meant to admit drivers of carriages and wagons (although today the visitors are probably driving cars and trucks), and smaller arch with a similar door for pedestrians. Across the top of the gate is a dovecote with 6-12 or more pigeonholes and a roof of wooden shingles or tiles.
. However it is believed that doves were not commonly kept there until after the Norman invasion. The earliest use of dovecotes in Britain may have been in the Roman period—although no certain examples are known of that date. The traditional view, however, is that dovecotes were introduced by the Normans. The earliest known examples of dove-keeping occur in Norman castles of the 12th century (for example, at Rochester Castle, Kent, where nest-holes can be seen in the keep), and documentary references also begin in the 12th century. The earliest surviving, definitely-dated free-standing dovecote in this country was built in 1326 at Garway in Herefordshire. The Welsh name colomendy has itself become a place name (similarly in Cornwall:colomen & ty = dove house).
Scotland
Early purpose-built doocots in Scotland are of a "beehive" shape, circular in plan and tapering up to a domed roof with a circular opening at the top. In the late 16th century they were superseded by the "lectern
" type, rectangular with a monopitch roof sloping fairly steeply in a suitable direction. Phantassie Doocot is an unusual example of the beehive type topped with a monopitch roof, and Finavon
Doocot of the lectern type is the largest doocot in Scotland, with 2,400 nesting boxes. Doocots were built well into the 18th century in increasingly decorative forms, then the need for them died out though some continued to be incorporated into farm buildings as ornamental features. However the 20th century saw a revival of doocot construction by pigeon fanciers
, and dramatic towers clad in black or green painted corrugated iron can still be found on wasteland near housing estates in Glasgow
and Edinburgh
.
Image:Eglintondoocot.JPG|The doocot (dovecot) at the site of the old Eglinton Mains farm in Ayrshire, Scotland.
Image:Doocotstables.JPG|The doocot at the Eglinton castle stables courtyard.
Image:Doocotnests.JPG|The Eglinton doocot nesting boxes.
Image:Milton mcdowall mills.jpg|Mills at Milton of Campsie
with a dovecot in the background.
File:Abbaye_Saint-Vincent_(Le_Mans)_Facade_Sud.jpg|Dovecote at the Abbaye Saint-Vincent in Le Mans, France
File:Dovecote_HHPP_purfleet.JPG|The Dovecote at High House Purfleet
, Essex
Québec City
, Canada, has a pigeonnier which stands in a square in Old Québec; the Pigeonnier is also the name of the square itself where street artists present their shows.
The dovecote materials can be very varied and shape and dimension extremely diverse:
Inside a dovecote could be virtually empty (boulins being located in the walls from bottom to top), the interior reduced to only the structure of a rotating ladder, or "potence", allowing the collection of eggs or squabs and maintenance.
: Doocot) is a structure intended to house pigeons or dove
s. Dovecotes may be square or circular free-standing structures or built into the end of a house or barn. They generally contain pigeonhole
s for the birds to nest. Pigeons and doves were an important food source historically in Western Europe and were kept for their eggs, flesh, and dung. In Scotland the tradition is continued in modern urban areas.
, the possession of a dovecote was a symbol of status and power and was consequently regulated by law. Only nobles had this special privilege known as droit de colombier. Many ancient manors
in France and the United Kingdom
have a dovecote (still standing or in ruins) in one section of the manorial enclosure or in nearby fields. Examples include Château de Kerjean in Brittany, France, Houchin
, France, Bodysgallen Hall
in Wales
, and Muchalls Castle
and Newark Castle
in Scotland
.
The oldest dovecotes are thought to have been the fortified dovecotes of Upper Egypt, and the domed dovecotes of Iran. In the dry regions, the droppings were in great demand and were collected on uniformly cleaned braids.
and Pliny the Elder
wrote works on pigeon farms and dovecote construction. In the city of Rome
in the time of the Republic and the Empire the internal design of the banks of pigeonholes was adapted for the purpose of disposing of cremated ashes after death: these columbaria
were generally constructed underground.
, France
, the dovecotes were built of wood in a very stylized way. Stone was the other popular building material for these old dovecotes. These stone structures were usually built in circular, square and occasionally octagonal form. Some of the medieval French abbeys had very large stone dovecotes on their grounds.
In Brittany
the dovecote was sometimes built directly into the upper walls of the farmhouse or manor-house. In rare cases, it was built into the upper gallery of the lookout tower (for example at the Toul-an-Gollet manor in Plesidy, Brittany). Dovecotes of this type are called tour-fuie in French.
Even some of the larger château-forts such as the Château de Suscinio
in Morbihan, still have a complete dovecote standing on the grounds, outside the moat and walls of the castle.
The dovecote interior, the space granted to the pigeons, is divided into a number of boulins (pigeon holes). Each boulin is the lodging of a pair of pigeons. These boulins can be in rock, brick or cob (adobe) and installed at the time of the construction of the dovecote or be in pottery (jars lying sideways, flat tiles, etc.), in braided wicker in the form of a basket or of a nest. It is the number of boulins that indicates the capacity of the dovecote. The one at the chateau d'Aulnay with its 2,000 boulins and the one at Port-d'Envaux with its 2,400 boulins of baked earth are among the largest ones in France.
In the Middle Ages, particularly in France, the possession of a colombier à pied (dovecote on the ground accessible by foot), constructed separately from the corps de logis of the manor-house (having boulins from the top down), was a privilege of the seigneurial lord. He was granted permission by his overlord to build a dovecote or two on his estate lands. For the other constructions, the dovecote rights (droit de colombier) varied according to the provinces. They had to be in proportion to the importance of the property, placed in a floor above a henhouse, a kennel, a bread oven, even a wine cellar. Generally the aviaries were integrated into a stable, a barn or a shed, and were permitted to use no more than 2.5 hectares of arable land.
Although they produced an excellent fertilizer (known as colombine), the lord's pigeons were often seen as a nuisance by the nearby peasant farmers, in particular at the time of sowing of new crops. In numerous regions (in France) where the right to possess a dovecote was reserved solely for the nobility (Brittany, Normandy, etc.), the complaint rolls very frequently recorded formal requests for the suppression of this privilege and a law for its abolition, which was finally ratified on 4 August 1789 in France.
. As an integral part of the World Heritage Site
"Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto
", dovecotes such as those at Villa Barbaro
enjoy a high level of protection.
Dovecotes in Belgium
are mostly associated with pigeon racing
. They have special features such as trap doors which allow pigeons to fly in, but not out. The Belgian-Dutch word for dovecote is "duivekot".
people of Transylvania
incorporate a dovecote into the design of their famous gates. These intricately carved wooden structures feature a large arch with a slatted door, which is meant to admit drivers of carriages and wagons (although today the visitors are probably driving cars and trucks), and smaller arch with a similar door for pedestrians. Across the top of the gate is a dovecote with 6-12 or more pigeonholes and a roof of wooden shingles or tiles.
. However it is believed that doves were not commonly kept there until after the Norman invasion. The earliest use of dovecotes in Britain may have been in the Roman period—although no certain examples are known of that date. The traditional view, however, is that dovecotes were introduced by the Normans. The earliest known examples of dove-keeping occur in Norman castles of the 12th century (for example, at Rochester Castle, Kent, where nest-holes can be seen in the keep), and documentary references also begin in the 12th century. The earliest surviving, definitely-dated free-standing dovecote in this country was built in 1326 at Garway in Herefordshire. The Welsh name colomendy has itself become a place name (similarly in Cornwall:colomen & ty = dove house).
Scotland
Early purpose-built doocots in Scotland are of a "beehive" shape, circular in plan and tapering up to a domed roof with a circular opening at the top. In the late 16th century they were superseded by the "lectern
" type, rectangular with a monopitch roof sloping fairly steeply in a suitable direction. Phantassie Doocot is an unusual example of the beehive type topped with a monopitch roof, and Finavon
Doocot of the lectern type is the largest doocot in Scotland, with 2,400 nesting boxes. Doocots were built well into the 18th century in increasingly decorative forms, then the need for them died out though some continued to be incorporated into farm buildings as ornamental features. However the 20th century saw a revival of doocot construction by pigeon fanciers
, and dramatic towers clad in black or green painted corrugated iron can still be found on wasteland near housing estates in Glasgow
and Edinburgh
.
Image:Eglintondoocot.JPG|The doocot (dovecot) at the site of the old Eglinton Mains farm in Ayrshire, Scotland.
Image:Doocotstables.JPG|The doocot at the Eglinton castle stables courtyard.
Image:Doocotnests.JPG|The Eglinton doocot nesting boxes.
Image:Milton mcdowall mills.jpg|Mills at Milton of Campsie
with a dovecot in the background.
File:Abbaye_Saint-Vincent_(Le_Mans)_Facade_Sud.jpg|Dovecote at the Abbaye Saint-Vincent in Le Mans, France
File:Dovecote_HHPP_purfleet.JPG|The Dovecote at High House Purfleet
, Essex
Québec City
, Canada, has a pigeonnier which stands in a square in Old Québec; the Pigeonnier is also the name of the square itself where street artists present their shows.
The dovecote materials can be very varied and shape and dimension extremely diverse:
Inside a dovecote could be virtually empty (boulins being located in the walls from bottom to top), the interior reduced to only the structure of a rotating ladder, or "potence", allowing the collection of eggs or squabs and maintenance.
Image:Colombier at Hamptonne in Jersey.jpg|A colombier (dovecote) in Jersey
, Channel Islands
Image:Pigeontower.jpg|The Pigeon Tower at Rivington
on the West Pennine Moors
, England
Image:Newark Castle doocot int.jpg|Looking up inside the doocot at Newark Castle
Image:Newark Castle doocot.jpg|At Newark Castle, Port Glasgow, a corner tower of the outer defensive wall was converted to a doocot in 1597 when the wall was demolished.
Image:Dovecote St Andrews.jpg|Doocot at St Andrews
, restored by the St. Andrews Preservation Trust
Image:Glasgow doocot Firrhill 1.jpg|Urban doocot in Glasgow
, Scotland
Image:Glasgow doocot Partick 1.jpg|Urban doocot in Glasgow, Scotland
Image:Old-dovecot.jpg|A (derelict) dovecot in Zemst
, Belgium
Image:Limburg_Brothers.jpg|The month of February in the Limburg Brothers' Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry
, a painting dated 1416, showing a dovecote
Image:Dove house.jpg|Small dovecote at the Lost Gardens of Heligan
Image:The_Dovecote.jpg|The Dovecote, Listed 16th Century dovecote in Long Wittenham
.
A dovecote or dovecot (Scots
: Doocot) is a structure intended to house pigeons or dove
s. Dovecotes may be square or circular free-standing structures or built into the end of a house or barn. They generally contain pigeonhole
s for the birds to nest. Pigeons and doves were an important food source historically in Western Europe and were kept for their eggs, flesh, and dung. In Scotland the tradition is continued in modern urban areas.
, the possession of a dovecote was a symbol of status and power and was consequently regulated by law. Only nobles had this special privilege known as droit de colombier. Many ancient manors
in France and the United Kingdom
have a dovecote (still standing or in ruins) in one section of the manorial enclosure or in nearby fields. Examples include Château de Kerjean in Brittany, France, Houchin
, France, Bodysgallen Hall
in Wales
, and Muchalls Castle
and Newark Castle
in Scotland
.
The oldest dovecotes are thought to have been the fortified dovecotes of Upper Egypt, and the domed dovecotes of Iran. In the dry regions, the droppings were in great demand and were collected on uniformly cleaned braids.
and Pliny the Elder
wrote works on pigeon farms and dovecote construction. In the city of Rome
in the time of the Republic and the Empire the internal design of the banks of pigeonholes was adapted for the purpose of disposing of cremated ashes after death: these columbaria
were generally constructed underground.
, France
, the dovecotes were built of wood in a very stylized way. Stone was the other popular building material for these old dovecotes. These stone structures were usually built in circular, square and occasionally octagonal form. Some of the medieval French abbeys had very large stone dovecotes on their grounds.
In Brittany
the dovecote was sometimes built directly into the upper walls of the farmhouse or manor-house. In rare cases, it was built into the upper gallery of the lookout tower (for example at the Toul-an-Gollet manor in Plesidy, Brittany). Dovecotes of this type are called tour-fuie in French.
Even some of the larger château-forts such as the Château de Suscinio
in Morbihan, still have a complete dovecote standing on the grounds, outside the moat and walls of the castle.
The dovecote interior, the space granted to the pigeons, is divided into a number of boulins (pigeon holes). Each boulin is the lodging of a pair of pigeons. These boulins can be in rock, brick or cob (adobe) and installed at the time of the construction of the dovecote or be in pottery (jars lying sideways, flat tiles, etc.), in braided wicker in the form of a basket or of a nest. It is the number of boulins that indicates the capacity of the dovecote. The one at the chateau d'Aulnay with its 2,000 boulins and the one at Port-d'Envaux with its 2,400 boulins of baked earth are among the largest ones in France.
In the Middle Ages, particularly in France, the possession of a colombier à pied (dovecote on the ground accessible by foot), constructed separately from the corps de logis of the manor-house (having boulins from the top down), was a privilege of the seigneurial lord. He was granted permission by his overlord to build a dovecote or two on his estate lands. For the other constructions, the dovecote rights (droit de colombier) varied according to the provinces. They had to be in proportion to the importance of the property, placed in a floor above a henhouse, a kennel, a bread oven, even a wine cellar. Generally the aviaries were integrated into a stable, a barn or a shed, and were permitted to use no more than 2.5 hectares of arable land.
Although they produced an excellent fertilizer (known as colombine), the lord's pigeons were often seen as a nuisance by the nearby peasant farmers, in particular at the time of sowing of new crops. In numerous regions (in France) where the right to possess a dovecote was reserved solely for the nobility (Brittany, Normandy, etc.), the complaint rolls very frequently recorded formal requests for the suppression of this privilege and a law for its abolition, which was finally ratified on 4 August 1789 in France.
. As an integral part of the World Heritage Site
"Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto
", dovecotes such as those at Villa Barbaro
enjoy a high level of protection.
Dovecotes in Belgium
are mostly associated with pigeon racing
. They have special features such as trap doors which allow pigeons to fly in, but not out. The Belgian-Dutch word for dovecote is "duivekot".
people of Transylvania
incorporate a dovecote into the design of their famous gates. These intricately carved wooden structures feature a large arch with a slatted door, which is meant to admit drivers of carriages and wagons (although today the visitors are probably driving cars and trucks), and smaller arch with a similar door for pedestrians. Across the top of the gate is a dovecote with 6-12 or more pigeonholes and a roof of wooden shingles or tiles.
. However it is believed that doves were not commonly kept there until after the Norman invasion. The earliest use of dovecotes in Britain may have been in the Roman period—although no certain examples are known of that date. The traditional view, however, is that dovecotes were introduced by the Normans. The earliest known examples of dove-keeping occur in Norman castles of the 12th century (for example, at Rochester Castle, Kent, where nest-holes can be seen in the keep), and documentary references also begin in the 12th century. The earliest surviving, definitely-dated free-standing dovecote in this country was built in 1326 at Garway in Herefordshire. The Welsh name colomendy has itself become a place name (similarly in Cornwall:colomen & ty = dove house).
Scotland
Early purpose-built doocots in Scotland are of a "beehive" shape, circular in plan and tapering up to a domed roof with a circular opening at the top. In the late 16th century they were superseded by the "lectern
" type, rectangular with a monopitch roof sloping fairly steeply in a suitable direction. Phantassie Doocot is an unusual example of the beehive type topped with a monopitch roof, and Finavon
Doocot of the lectern type is the largest doocot in Scotland, with 2,400 nesting boxes. Doocots were built well into the 18th century in increasingly decorative forms, then the need for them died out though some continued to be incorporated into farm buildings as ornamental features. However the 20th century saw a revival of doocot construction by pigeon fanciers
, and dramatic towers clad in black or green painted corrugated iron can still be found on wasteland near housing estates in Glasgow
and Edinburgh
.
Image:Eglintondoocot.JPG|The doocot (dovecot) at the site of the old Eglinton Mains farm in Ayrshire, Scotland.
Image:Doocotstables.JPG|The doocot at the Eglinton castle stables courtyard.
Image:Doocotnests.JPG|The Eglinton doocot nesting boxes.
Image:Milton mcdowall mills.jpg|Mills at Milton of Campsie
with a dovecot in the background.Stoddart, John (1800), Remarks on local Scenery and Manners in Scotland. London: William Miller
;facing p. 206
File:Abbaye_Saint-Vincent_(Le_Mans)_Facade_Sud.jpg|Dovecote at the Abbaye Saint-Vincent in Le Mans, France
File:Dovecote_HHPP_purfleet.JPG|The Dovecote at High House Purfleet
, Essex
Québec City
, Canada, has a pigeonnier which stands in a square in Old Québec; the Pigeonnier is also the name of the square itself where street artists present their shows.
The dovecote materials can be very varied and shape and dimension extremely diverse:
Inside a dovecote could be virtually empty (boulins being located in the walls from bottom to top), the interior reduced to only the structure of a rotating ladder, or "potence", allowing the collection of eggs or squabs and maintenance.
Image:Colombier at Hamptonne in Jersey.jpg|A colombier (dovecote) in Jersey
, Channel Islands
Image:Pigeontower.jpg|The Pigeon Tower at Rivington
on the West Pennine Moors
, England
Image:Newark Castle doocot int.jpg|Looking up inside the doocot at Newark Castle
Image:Newark Castle doocot.jpg|At Newark Castle, Port Glasgow, a corner tower of the outer defensive wall was converted to a doocot in 1597 when the wall was demolished.
Image:Dovecote St Andrews.jpg|Doocot at St Andrews
, restored by the St. Andrews Preservation Trust
Image:Glasgow doocot Firrhill 1.jpg|Urban doocot in Glasgow
, Scotland
Image:Glasgow doocot Partick 1.jpg|Urban doocot in Glasgow, Scotland
Image:Old-dovecot.jpg|A (derelict) dovecot in Zemst
, Belgium
Image:Limburg_Brothers.jpg|The month of February in the Limburg Brothers' Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry
, a painting dated 1416, showing a dovecote
Image:Dove house.jpg|Small dovecote at the Lost Gardens of Heligan
Image:The_Dovecote.jpg|The Dovecote, Listed 16th Century dovecote in Long Wittenham
.
A dovecote or dovecot (Scots
: Doocot) is a structure intended to house pigeons or dove
s. Dovecotes may be square or circular free-standing structures or built into the end of a house or barn. They generally contain pigeonhole
s for the birds to nest. Pigeons and doves were an important food source historically in Western Europe and were kept for their eggs, flesh, and dung. In Scotland the tradition is continued in modern urban areas.
, the possession of a dovecote was a symbol of status and power and was consequently regulated by law. Only nobles had this special privilege known as droit de colombier. Many ancient manors
in France and the United Kingdom
have a dovecote (still standing or in ruins) in one section of the manorial enclosure or in nearby fields. Examples include Château de Kerjean in Brittany, France, Houchin
, France, Bodysgallen Hall
in Wales
, and Muchalls Castle
and Newark Castle
in Scotland
.
The oldest dovecotes are thought to have been the fortified dovecotes of Upper Egypt, and the domed dovecotes of Iran. In the dry regions, the droppings were in great demand and were collected on uniformly cleaned braids.
and Pliny the Elder
wrote works on pigeon farms and dovecote construction. In the city of Rome
in the time of the Republic and the Empire the internal design of the banks of pigeonholes was adapted for the purpose of disposing of cremated ashes after death: these columbaria
were generally constructed underground.
, France
, the dovecotes were built of wood in a very stylized way. Stone was the other popular building material for these old dovecotes. These stone structures were usually built in circular, square and occasionally octagonal form. Some of the medieval French abbeys had very large stone dovecotes on their grounds.
In Brittany
the dovecote was sometimes built directly into the upper walls of the farmhouse or manor-house. In rare cases, it was built into the upper gallery of the lookout tower (for example at the Toul-an-Gollet manor in Plesidy, Brittany). Dovecotes of this type are called tour-fuie in French.
Even some of the larger château-forts such as the Château de Suscinio
in Morbihan, still have a complete dovecote standing on the grounds, outside the moat and walls of the castle.
The dovecote interior, the space granted to the pigeons, is divided into a number of boulins (pigeon holes). Each boulin is the lodging of a pair of pigeons. These boulins can be in rock, brick or cob (adobe) and installed at the time of the construction of the dovecote or be in pottery (jars lying sideways, flat tiles, etc.), in braided wicker in the form of a basket or of a nest. It is the number of boulins that indicates the capacity of the dovecote. The one at the chateau d'Aulnay with its 2,000 boulins and the one at Port-d'Envaux with its 2,400 boulins of baked earth are among the largest ones in France.
In the Middle Ages, particularly in France, the possession of a colombier à pied (dovecote on the ground accessible by foot), constructed separately from the corps de logis of the manor-house (having boulins from the top down), was a privilege of the seigneurial lord. He was granted permission by his overlord to build a dovecote or two on his estate lands. For the other constructions, the dovecote rights (droit de colombier) varied according to the provinces. They had to be in proportion to the importance of the property, placed in a floor above a henhouse, a kennel, a bread oven, even a wine cellar. Generally the aviaries were integrated into a stable, a barn or a shed, and were permitted to use no more than 2.5 hectares of arable land.
Although they produced an excellent fertilizer (known as colombine), the lord's pigeons were often seen as a nuisance by the nearby peasant farmers, in particular at the time of sowing of new crops. In numerous regions (in France) where the right to possess a dovecote was reserved solely for the nobility (Brittany, Normandy, etc.), the complaint rolls very frequently recorded formal requests for the suppression of this privilege and a law for its abolition, which was finally ratified on 4 August 1789 in France.
. As an integral part of the World Heritage Site
"Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto
", dovecotes such as those at Villa Barbaro
enjoy a high level of protection.
Dovecotes in Belgium
are mostly associated with pigeon racing
. They have special features such as trap doors which allow pigeons to fly in, but not out. The Belgian-Dutch word for dovecote is "duivekot".
people of Transylvania
incorporate a dovecote into the design of their famous gates. These intricately carved wooden structures feature a large arch with a slatted door, which is meant to admit drivers of carriages and wagons (although today the visitors are probably driving cars and trucks), and smaller arch with a similar door for pedestrians. Across the top of the gate is a dovecote with 6-12 or more pigeonholes and a roof of wooden shingles or tiles.
. However it is believed that doves were not commonly kept there until after the Norman invasion. The earliest use of dovecotes in Britain may have been in the Roman period—although no certain examples are known of that date. The traditional view, however, is that dovecotes were introduced by the Normans. The earliest known examples of dove-keeping occur in Norman castles of the 12th century (for example, at Rochester Castle, Kent, where nest-holes can be seen in the keep), and documentary references also begin in the 12th century. The earliest surviving, definitely-dated free-standing dovecote in this country was built in 1326 at Garway in Herefordshire. The Welsh name colomendy has itself become a place name (similarly in Cornwall:colomen & ty = dove house).
Scotland
Early purpose-built doocots in Scotland are of a "beehive" shape, circular in plan and tapering up to a domed roof with a circular opening at the top. In the late 16th century they were superseded by the "lectern
" type, rectangular with a monopitch roof sloping fairly steeply in a suitable direction. Phantassie Doocot is an unusual example of the beehive type topped with a monopitch roof, and Finavon
Doocot of the lectern type is the largest doocot in Scotland, with 2,400 nesting boxes. Doocots were built well into the 18th century in increasingly decorative forms, then the need for them died out though some continued to be incorporated into farm buildings as ornamental features. However the 20th century saw a revival of doocot construction by pigeon fanciers
, and dramatic towers clad in black or green painted corrugated iron can still be found on wasteland near housing estates in Glasgow
and Edinburgh
.
Image:Eglintondoocot.JPG|The doocot (dovecot) at the site of the old Eglinton Mains farm in Ayrshire, Scotland.
Image:Doocotstables.JPG|The doocot at the Eglinton castle stables courtyard.
Image:Doocotnests.JPG|The Eglinton doocot nesting boxes.
Image:Milton mcdowall mills.jpg|Mills at Milton of Campsie
with a dovecot in the background.Stoddart, John (1800), Remarks on local Scenery and Manners in Scotland. London: William Miller
;facing p. 206
File:Abbaye_Saint-Vincent_(Le_Mans)_Facade_Sud.jpg|Dovecote at the Abbaye Saint-Vincent in Le Mans, France
File:Dovecote_HHPP_purfleet.JPG|The Dovecote at High House Purfleet
, Essex
Québec City
, Canada, has a pigeonnier which stands in a square in Old Québec; the Pigeonnier is also the name of the square itself where street artists present their shows.
The dovecote materials can be very varied and shape and dimension extremely diverse:
Inside a dovecote could be virtually empty (boulins being located in the walls from bottom to top), the interior reduced to only the structure of a rotating ladder, or "potence", allowing the collection of eggs or squabs and maintenance.
Image:Colombier at Hamptonne in Jersey.jpg|A colombier (dovecote) in Jersey
, Channel Islands
Image:Pigeontower.jpg|The Pigeon Tower at Rivington
on the West Pennine Moors
, England
Image:Newark Castle doocot int.jpg|Looking up inside the doocot at Newark Castle
Image:Newark Castle doocot.jpg|At Newark Castle, Port Glasgow, a corner tower of the outer defensive wall was converted to a doocot in 1597 when the wall was demolished.
Image:Dovecote St Andrews.jpg|Doocot at St Andrews
, restored by the St. Andrews Preservation Trust
Image:Glasgow doocot Firrhill 1.jpg|Urban doocot in Glasgow
, Scotland
Image:Glasgow doocot Partick 1.jpg|Urban doocot in Glasgow, Scotland
Image:Old-dovecot.jpg|A (derelict) dovecot in Zemst
, Belgium
Image:Limburg_Brothers.jpg|The month of February in the Limburg Brothers' Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry
, a painting dated 1416, showing a dovecote
Image:Dove house.jpg|Small dovecote at the Lost Gardens of Heligan
Image:The_Dovecote.jpg|The Dovecote, Listed 16th Century dovecote in Long Wittenham
.Robert Stephenson (1986), Conversion of Listed 16th Century Dovecote.
Image:Dovecote hudson valley.jpg|Hudson Valley dovecote in Saugerties
, New York
File:Dovecote_by_Oscar_Niemeyer_in_Brasília.jpg|Modern dovecote designed by Oscar Niemeyer
and located on the Praça dos Três Poderes
in Brasília
Dove
Pigeons and doves constitute the bird family Columbidae within the order Columbiformes, which include some 300 species of near passerines. In general terms "dove" and "pigeon" are used somewhat interchangeably...
s. Dovecotes may be square or circular free-standing structures or built into the end of a house or barn. They generally contain pigeonhole
Pigeonhole
Pigeonhole may refer to:*Pigeonholes, nesting spaces formed in a dovecote *Pigeonhole, one of the boxes in a pigeon coop...
s for the birds to nest. Pigeons and doves were an important food source historically in Western Europe and were kept for their eggs, flesh, and dung. In Scotland the tradition is continued in modern urban areas.
History and geography
In some cultures, particularly Medieval EuropeEurope
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, the possession of a dovecote was a symbol of status and power and was consequently regulated by law. Only nobles had this special privilege known as droit de colombier. Many ancient manors
Manorialism
Manorialism, an essential element of feudal society, was the organizing principle of rural economy that originated in the villa system of the Late Roman Empire, was widely practiced in medieval western and parts of central Europe, and was slowly replaced by the advent of a money-based market...
in France and the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
have a dovecote (still standing or in ruins) in one section of the manorial enclosure or in nearby fields. Examples include Château de Kerjean in Brittany, France, Houchin
Houchin
Houchin is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France.-Geography:A farming village, situated some south of Béthune near the junction of the D72 and the D171 roads.-Population:-Places of interest:...
, France, Bodysgallen Hall
Bodysgallen Hall
Bodysgallen Hall is a manor house in Conwy county borough, north Wales, near the village of Llanrhos. Since 2008 the house has been owned by The National Trust. It is a grade I listed building, and is currently used as a hotel. This listed historical building derives primarily from the 17th...
in Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, and Muchalls Castle
Muchalls Castle
Muchalls Castle stands overlooking the North Sea in the countryside of Kincardine and Mearns, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The lower course is a well preserved double groined 13th century towerhouse structure, built by the Frasers of Muchalls. Upon this structure, the 17th century castle was begun by...
and Newark Castle
Newark Castle, Port Glasgow
Newark Castle is a well-preserved castle sited on the south shore of the estuary of the River Clyde in Port Glasgow, Inverclyde, Scotland, where the firth gradually narrows from the Firth of Clyde and navigation upriver is made difficult by shifting sandbanks...
in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
.
The oldest dovecotes are thought to have been the fortified dovecotes of Upper Egypt, and the domed dovecotes of Iran. In the dry regions, the droppings were in great demand and were collected on uniformly cleaned braids.
Columbaria in Ancient Rome
The presence of dovecotes is not noted in France before the Roman invasion of Gaul by Caesar. The pigeon farm was then a passion in Rome: the Roman, generally round, columbarium had its interior covered with a white coating of marble powder. Varro, ColumellaColumella
Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella is the most important writer on agriculture of the Roman empire. Little is known of his life. He was probably born in Gades , possibly of Roman parents. After a career in the army , he took up farming...
and Pliny the Elder
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...
wrote works on pigeon farms and dovecote construction. In the city of Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
in the time of the Republic and the Empire the internal design of the banks of pigeonholes was adapted for the purpose of disposing of cremated ashes after death: these columbaria
Columbarium
A columbarium is a place for the respectful and usually public storage of cinerary urns . The term comes from the Latin columba and originally referred to compartmentalized housing for doves and pigeons .The Columbarium of Pomponius Hylas is a particularly fine ancient Roman example, rich in...
were generally constructed underground.
Dovecotes of France
The French word for dovecote is pigeonnier or colombier. In some French provinces, especially NormandyNormandy
Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, the dovecotes were built of wood in a very stylized way. Stone was the other popular building material for these old dovecotes. These stone structures were usually built in circular, square and occasionally octagonal form. Some of the medieval French abbeys had very large stone dovecotes on their grounds.
In Brittany
Brittany
Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
the dovecote was sometimes built directly into the upper walls of the farmhouse or manor-house. In rare cases, it was built into the upper gallery of the lookout tower (for example at the Toul-an-Gollet manor in Plesidy, Brittany). Dovecotes of this type are called tour-fuie in French.
Even some of the larger château-forts such as the Château de Suscinio
Château de Suscinio
The Château de Suscinio or de Susinio is a French castle, built in the late Middle Ages, to be the residence of the Dukes of Brittany. It is located near the town of Sarzeau in the département of Morbihan, near the coast of the Atlantic ocean...
in Morbihan, still have a complete dovecote standing on the grounds, outside the moat and walls of the castle.
Colombiers (or pigeonniers) in mediæval France
In France, it was called a colombier or fuie from the 13th century onwards and pigeonnier until the 19th century.In the Middle Ages, particularly in France, the possession of a colombier à pied (dovecote on the ground accessible by foot), constructed separately from the corps de logis of the manor-house (having boulins from the top down), was a privilege of the seigneurial lord. He was granted permission by his overlord to build a dovecote or two on his estate lands. For the other constructions, the dovecote rights (droit de colombier) varied according to the provinces. They had to be in proportion to the importance of the property, placed in a floor above a henhouse, a kennel, a bread oven, even a wine cellar. Generally the aviaries were integrated into a stable, a barn or a shed, and were permitted to use no more than 2.5 hectares of arable land.
Although they produced an excellent fertilizer (known as colombine), the lord's pigeons were often seen as a nuisance by the nearby peasant farmers, in particular at the time of sowing of new crops. In numerous regions (in France) where the right to possess a dovecote was reserved solely for the nobility (Brittany, Normandy, etc.), the complaint rolls very frequently recorded formal requests for the suppression of this privilege and a law for its abolition, which was finally ratified on 4 August 1789 in France.
Dovecotes of Italy
Dovecotes were included in several of the villa designs of Andrea PalladioAndrea Palladio
Andrea Palladio was an architect active in the Republic of Venice. Palladio, influenced by Roman and Greek architecture, primarily by Vitruvius, is widely considered the most influential individual in the history of Western architecture...
. As an integral part of the World Heritage Site
World Heritage Site
A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...
"Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto
Palladian Villas of the Veneto
The City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto is a World Heritage Site protecting a cluster of works by the architect Andrea Palladio. UNESCO inscribed the site on the World Heritage List in 1994. At first the site was called "Vicenza, City of Palladio" and only buildings in the...
", dovecotes such as those at Villa Barbaro
Villa Barbaro
Villa Barbaro, also known as the Villa di Maser, is a large villa at Maser in the Veneto region of northern Italy. It was designed and built by the Italian architect Andrea Palladio, with frescos by Paolo Veronese and sculptures by Alessandro Vittoria for Daniele Barbaro, Patriarch of Aquileia...
enjoy a high level of protection.
Dovecotes of the Netherlands and Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
are mostly associated with pigeon racing
Pigeon racing
Pigeon racing is the sport of releasing specially trained racing pigeons, which then return to their homes over a carefully measured distance...
. They have special features such as trap doors which allow pigeons to fly in, but not out. The Belgian-Dutch word for dovecote is "duivekot".
Dovecotes of Transylvania
The SzekelySzékely
The Székelys or Székely , sometimes also referred to as Szeklers , are a subgroup of the Hungarian people living mostly in the Székely Land, an ethno-cultural region in eastern Transylvania, Romania...
people of Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
incorporate a dovecote into the design of their famous gates. These intricately carved wooden structures feature a large arch with a slatted door, which is meant to admit drivers of carriages and wagons (although today the visitors are probably driving cars and trucks), and smaller arch with a similar door for pedestrians. Across the top of the gate is a dovecote with 6-12 or more pigeonholes and a roof of wooden shingles or tiles.
Dovecotes of the United Kingdom
The Romans may have introduced dovecotes or columbaria to Britain since pigeon holes have been found in Roman ruins at CaerwentCaerwent
Caerwent is a village and community in Monmouthshire, Wales. It is located about five miles west of Chepstow and eleven miles east of Newport, and was founded by the Romans as the market town of Venta Silurum, an important settlement of the Brythonic Silures tribe. The modern village is built...
. However it is believed that doves were not commonly kept there until after the Norman invasion. The earliest use of dovecotes in Britain may have been in the Roman period—although no certain examples are known of that date. The traditional view, however, is that dovecotes were introduced by the Normans. The earliest known examples of dove-keeping occur in Norman castles of the 12th century (for example, at Rochester Castle, Kent, where nest-holes can be seen in the keep), and documentary references also begin in the 12th century. The earliest surviving, definitely-dated free-standing dovecote in this country was built in 1326 at Garway in Herefordshire. The Welsh name colomendy has itself become a place name (similarly in Cornwall:colomen & ty = dove house).
Scotland
Early purpose-built doocots in Scotland are of a "beehive" shape, circular in plan and tapering up to a domed roof with a circular opening at the top. In the late 16th century they were superseded by the "lectern
Lectern
A lectern is a reading desk with a slanted top, usually placed on a stand or affixed to some other form of support, on which documents or books are placed as support for reading aloud, as in a scripture reading, lecture, or sermon...
" type, rectangular with a monopitch roof sloping fairly steeply in a suitable direction. Phantassie Doocot is an unusual example of the beehive type topped with a monopitch roof, and Finavon
Finavon Castle
Finavon Castle lies on the River South Esk, about a quarter of a mile south of Milton of Finavon village and five miles to the north-east of Forfar in Angus, Scotland...
Doocot of the lectern type is the largest doocot in Scotland, with 2,400 nesting boxes. Doocots were built well into the 18th century in increasingly decorative forms, then the need for them died out though some continued to be incorporated into farm buildings as ornamental features. However the 20th century saw a revival of doocot construction by pigeon fanciers
Pigeon keeping
Pigeon keeping is the art and science of breeding domestic pigeons. People have practiced pigeon keeping for about 10,000 years in almost every part of the world...
, and dramatic towers clad in black or green painted corrugated iron can still be found on wasteland near housing estates in Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
and Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
.
Dovecotes of North America
In the U.S. an alternative English name for dovecotes is derived from the French: pigeonaire. This word is more common than "dovecote" in Louisiana and other areas with heavy Francophonic heritage.Québec City
Quebec City
Quebec , also Québec, Quebec City or Québec City is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec and is located within the Capitale-Nationale region. It is the second most populous city in Quebec after Montreal, which is about to the southwest...
, Canada, has a pigeonnier which stands in a square in Old Québec; the Pigeonnier is also the name of the square itself where street artists present their shows.
Architecture
Their location is chosen away from large trees that can house raptors and shielded from prevailing winds and their construction obeys a few safety rules: tight access doors and smooth walls with a protruding band of stones (or other smooth surface) to prohibit the entry of climbing predators (martens, weasels…). The exterior facade was, if necessary, only evenly coated by a horizontal band, in order to prevent their ascent.The dovecote materials can be very varied and shape and dimension extremely diverse:
- the square dovecote with quadruple vaulting: built before the fifteenth century (Roquetaillade Castle, Bordeaux) or Saint-Trojan near Cognac)
- the cylindrical tower: fourteenth century to the sixteenth century, it is covered with curved tiles, flat tiles, stone lauzes roofing and occasionally with a dome of bricks. A window or skylight is the only opening.
- the dovecote on stone or wooden pillars, cylindrical, hexagonal or square;
- the hexagonal dovecote (like the dovecotes of the Royal Mail at Sauzé-Vaussais);
- the square dovecote with flat roof tiles in the seventeenth century and a slate roof in the eighteenth century;
- the lean-to structure against the sides of buildings.
Inside a dovecote could be virtually empty (boulins being located in the walls from bottom to top), the interior reduced to only the structure of a rotating ladder, or "potence", allowing the collection of eggs or squabs and maintenance.
Gallery
A dovecote or dovecot (ScotsScots language
Scots is the Germanic language variety spoken in Lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster . It is sometimes called Lowland Scots to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic, the Celtic language variety spoken in most of the western Highlands and in the Hebrides.Since there are no universally accepted...
: Doocot) is a structure intended to house pigeons or dove
Dove
Pigeons and doves constitute the bird family Columbidae within the order Columbiformes, which include some 300 species of near passerines. In general terms "dove" and "pigeon" are used somewhat interchangeably...
s. Dovecotes may be square or circular free-standing structures or built into the end of a house or barn. They generally contain pigeonhole
Pigeonhole
Pigeonhole may refer to:*Pigeonholes, nesting spaces formed in a dovecote *Pigeonhole, one of the boxes in a pigeon coop...
s for the birds to nest. Pigeons and doves were an important food source historically in Western Europe and were kept for their eggs, flesh, and dung. In Scotland the tradition is continued in modern urban areas.
History and geography
In some cultures, particularly Medieval EuropeEurope
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, the possession of a dovecote was a symbol of status and power and was consequently regulated by law. Only nobles had this special privilege known as droit de colombier. Many ancient manors
Manorialism
Manorialism, an essential element of feudal society, was the organizing principle of rural economy that originated in the villa system of the Late Roman Empire, was widely practiced in medieval western and parts of central Europe, and was slowly replaced by the advent of a money-based market...
in France and the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
have a dovecote (still standing or in ruins) in one section of the manorial enclosure or in nearby fields. Examples include Château de Kerjean in Brittany, France, Houchin
Houchin
Houchin is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France.-Geography:A farming village, situated some south of Béthune near the junction of the D72 and the D171 roads.-Population:-Places of interest:...
, France, Bodysgallen Hall
Bodysgallen Hall
Bodysgallen Hall is a manor house in Conwy county borough, north Wales, near the village of Llanrhos. Since 2008 the house has been owned by The National Trust. It is a grade I listed building, and is currently used as a hotel. This listed historical building derives primarily from the 17th...
in Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, and Muchalls Castle
Muchalls Castle
Muchalls Castle stands overlooking the North Sea in the countryside of Kincardine and Mearns, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The lower course is a well preserved double groined 13th century towerhouse structure, built by the Frasers of Muchalls. Upon this structure, the 17th century castle was begun by...
and Newark Castle
Newark Castle, Port Glasgow
Newark Castle is a well-preserved castle sited on the south shore of the estuary of the River Clyde in Port Glasgow, Inverclyde, Scotland, where the firth gradually narrows from the Firth of Clyde and navigation upriver is made difficult by shifting sandbanks...
in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
.
The oldest dovecotes are thought to have been the fortified dovecotes of Upper Egypt, and the domed dovecotes of Iran. In the dry regions, the droppings were in great demand and were collected on uniformly cleaned braids.
Columbaria in Ancient Rome
The presence of dovecotes is not noted in France before the Roman invasion of Gaul by Caesar. The pigeon farm was then a passion in Rome: the Roman, generally round, columbarium had its interior covered with a white coating of marble powder. Varro, ColumellaColumella
Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella is the most important writer on agriculture of the Roman empire. Little is known of his life. He was probably born in Gades , possibly of Roman parents. After a career in the army , he took up farming...
and Pliny the Elder
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...
wrote works on pigeon farms and dovecote construction. In the city of Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
in the time of the Republic and the Empire the internal design of the banks of pigeonholes was adapted for the purpose of disposing of cremated ashes after death: these columbaria
Columbarium
A columbarium is a place for the respectful and usually public storage of cinerary urns . The term comes from the Latin columba and originally referred to compartmentalized housing for doves and pigeons .The Columbarium of Pomponius Hylas is a particularly fine ancient Roman example, rich in...
were generally constructed underground.
Dovecotes of France
The French word for dovecote is pigeonnier or colombier. In some French provinces, especially NormandyNormandy
Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, the dovecotes were built of wood in a very stylized way. Stone was the other popular building material for these old dovecotes. These stone structures were usually built in circular, square and occasionally octagonal form. Some of the medieval French abbeys had very large stone dovecotes on their grounds.
In Brittany
Brittany
Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
the dovecote was sometimes built directly into the upper walls of the farmhouse or manor-house. In rare cases, it was built into the upper gallery of the lookout tower (for example at the Toul-an-Gollet manor in Plesidy, Brittany). Dovecotes of this type are called tour-fuie in French.
Even some of the larger château-forts such as the Château de Suscinio
Château de Suscinio
The Château de Suscinio or de Susinio is a French castle, built in the late Middle Ages, to be the residence of the Dukes of Brittany. It is located near the town of Sarzeau in the département of Morbihan, near the coast of the Atlantic ocean...
in Morbihan, still have a complete dovecote standing on the grounds, outside the moat and walls of the castle.
Colombiers (or pigeonniers) in mediæval France
In France, it was called a colombier or fuie from the 13th century onwards and pigeonnier until the 19th century.In the Middle Ages, particularly in France, the possession of a colombier à pied (dovecote on the ground accessible by foot), constructed separately from the corps de logis of the manor-house (having boulins from the top down), was a privilege of the seigneurial lord. He was granted permission by his overlord to build a dovecote or two on his estate lands. For the other constructions, the dovecote rights (droit de colombier) varied according to the provinces. They had to be in proportion to the importance of the property, placed in a floor above a henhouse, a kennel, a bread oven, even a wine cellar. Generally the aviaries were integrated into a stable, a barn or a shed, and were permitted to use no more than 2.5 hectares of arable land.
Although they produced an excellent fertilizer (known as colombine), the lord's pigeons were often seen as a nuisance by the nearby peasant farmers, in particular at the time of sowing of new crops. In numerous regions (in France) where the right to possess a dovecote was reserved solely for the nobility (Brittany, Normandy, etc.), the complaint rolls very frequently recorded formal requests for the suppression of this privilege and a law for its abolition, which was finally ratified on 4 August 1789 in France.
Dovecotes of Italy
Dovecotes were included in several of the villa designs of Andrea PalladioAndrea Palladio
Andrea Palladio was an architect active in the Republic of Venice. Palladio, influenced by Roman and Greek architecture, primarily by Vitruvius, is widely considered the most influential individual in the history of Western architecture...
. As an integral part of the World Heritage Site
World Heritage Site
A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...
"Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto
Palladian Villas of the Veneto
The City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto is a World Heritage Site protecting a cluster of works by the architect Andrea Palladio. UNESCO inscribed the site on the World Heritage List in 1994. At first the site was called "Vicenza, City of Palladio" and only buildings in the...
", dovecotes such as those at Villa Barbaro
Villa Barbaro
Villa Barbaro, also known as the Villa di Maser, is a large villa at Maser in the Veneto region of northern Italy. It was designed and built by the Italian architect Andrea Palladio, with frescos by Paolo Veronese and sculptures by Alessandro Vittoria for Daniele Barbaro, Patriarch of Aquileia...
enjoy a high level of protection.
Dovecotes of the Netherlands and Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
are mostly associated with pigeon racing
Pigeon racing
Pigeon racing is the sport of releasing specially trained racing pigeons, which then return to their homes over a carefully measured distance...
. They have special features such as trap doors which allow pigeons to fly in, but not out. The Belgian-Dutch word for dovecote is "duivekot".
Dovecotes of Transylvania
The SzekelySzékely
The Székelys or Székely , sometimes also referred to as Szeklers , are a subgroup of the Hungarian people living mostly in the Székely Land, an ethno-cultural region in eastern Transylvania, Romania...
people of Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
incorporate a dovecote into the design of their famous gates. These intricately carved wooden structures feature a large arch with a slatted door, which is meant to admit drivers of carriages and wagons (although today the visitors are probably driving cars and trucks), and smaller arch with a similar door for pedestrians. Across the top of the gate is a dovecote with 6-12 or more pigeonholes and a roof of wooden shingles or tiles.
Dovecotes of the United Kingdom
The Romans may have introduced dovecotes or columbaria to Britain since pigeon holes have been found in Roman ruins at CaerwentCaerwent
Caerwent is a village and community in Monmouthshire, Wales. It is located about five miles west of Chepstow and eleven miles east of Newport, and was founded by the Romans as the market town of Venta Silurum, an important settlement of the Brythonic Silures tribe. The modern village is built...
. However it is believed that doves were not commonly kept there until after the Norman invasion. The earliest use of dovecotes in Britain may have been in the Roman period—although no certain examples are known of that date. The traditional view, however, is that dovecotes were introduced by the Normans. The earliest known examples of dove-keeping occur in Norman castles of the 12th century (for example, at Rochester Castle, Kent, where nest-holes can be seen in the keep), and documentary references also begin in the 12th century. The earliest surviving, definitely-dated free-standing dovecote in this country was built in 1326 at Garway in Herefordshire. The Welsh name colomendy has itself become a place name (similarly in Cornwall:colomen & ty = dove house).
Scotland
Early purpose-built doocots in Scotland are of a "beehive" shape, circular in plan and tapering up to a domed roof with a circular opening at the top. In the late 16th century they were superseded by the "lectern
Lectern
A lectern is a reading desk with a slanted top, usually placed on a stand or affixed to some other form of support, on which documents or books are placed as support for reading aloud, as in a scripture reading, lecture, or sermon...
" type, rectangular with a monopitch roof sloping fairly steeply in a suitable direction. Phantassie Doocot is an unusual example of the beehive type topped with a monopitch roof, and Finavon
Finavon Castle
Finavon Castle lies on the River South Esk, about a quarter of a mile south of Milton of Finavon village and five miles to the north-east of Forfar in Angus, Scotland...
Doocot of the lectern type is the largest doocot in Scotland, with 2,400 nesting boxes. Doocots were built well into the 18th century in increasingly decorative forms, then the need for them died out though some continued to be incorporated into farm buildings as ornamental features. However the 20th century saw a revival of doocot construction by pigeon fanciers
Pigeon keeping
Pigeon keeping is the art and science of breeding domestic pigeons. People have practiced pigeon keeping for about 10,000 years in almost every part of the world...
, and dramatic towers clad in black or green painted corrugated iron can still be found on wasteland near housing estates in Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
and Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
.
Dovecotes of North America
In the U.S. an alternative English name for dovecotes is derived from the French: pigeonaire. This word is more common than "dovecote" in Louisiana and other areas with heavy Francophonic heritage.Québec City
Quebec City
Quebec , also Québec, Quebec City or Québec City is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec and is located within the Capitale-Nationale region. It is the second most populous city in Quebec after Montreal, which is about to the southwest...
, Canada, has a pigeonnier which stands in a square in Old Québec; the Pigeonnier is also the name of the square itself where street artists present their shows.
Architecture
Their location is chosen away from large trees that can house raptors and shielded from prevailing winds and their construction obeys a few safety rules: tight access doors and smooth walls with a protruding band of stones (or other smooth surface) to prohibit the entry of climbing predators (martens, weasels…). The exterior facade was, if necessary, only evenly coated by a horizontal band, in order to prevent their ascent.The dovecote materials can be very varied and shape and dimension extremely diverse:
- the square dovecote with quadruple vaulting: built before the fifteenth century (Roquetaillade Castle, Bordeaux) or Saint-Trojan near Cognac)
- the cylindrical tower: fourteenth century to the sixteenth century, it is covered with curved tiles, flat tiles, stone lauzes roofing and occasionally with a dome of bricks. A window or skylight is the only opening.
- the dovecote on stone or wooden pillars, cylindrical, hexagonal or square;
- the hexagonal dovecote (like the dovecotes of the Royal Mail at Sauzé-Vaussais);
- the square dovecote with flat roof tiles in the seventeenth century and a slate roof in the eighteenth century;
- the lean-to structure against the sides of buildings.
Inside a dovecote could be virtually empty (boulins being located in the walls from bottom to top), the interior reduced to only the structure of a rotating ladder, or "potence", allowing the collection of eggs or squabs and maintenance.
Gallery
A dovecote or dovecot (ScotsScots language
Scots is the Germanic language variety spoken in Lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster . It is sometimes called Lowland Scots to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic, the Celtic language variety spoken in most of the western Highlands and in the Hebrides.Since there are no universally accepted...
: Doocot) is a structure intended to house pigeons or dove
Dove
Pigeons and doves constitute the bird family Columbidae within the order Columbiformes, which include some 300 species of near passerines. In general terms "dove" and "pigeon" are used somewhat interchangeably...
s. Dovecotes may be square or circular free-standing structures or built into the end of a house or barn. They generally contain pigeonhole
Pigeonhole
Pigeonhole may refer to:*Pigeonholes, nesting spaces formed in a dovecote *Pigeonhole, one of the boxes in a pigeon coop...
s for the birds to nest. Pigeons and doves were an important food source historically in Western Europe and were kept for their eggs, flesh, and dung. In Scotland the tradition is continued in modern urban areas.
History and geography
In some cultures, particularly Medieval EuropeEurope
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, the possession of a dovecote was a symbol of status and power and was consequently regulated by law. Only nobles had this special privilege known as droit de colombier. Many ancient manors
Manorialism
Manorialism, an essential element of feudal society, was the organizing principle of rural economy that originated in the villa system of the Late Roman Empire, was widely practiced in medieval western and parts of central Europe, and was slowly replaced by the advent of a money-based market...
in France and the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
have a dovecote (still standing or in ruins) in one section of the manorial enclosure or in nearby fields. Examples include Château de Kerjean in Brittany, France, Houchin
Houchin
Houchin is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France.-Geography:A farming village, situated some south of Béthune near the junction of the D72 and the D171 roads.-Population:-Places of interest:...
, France, Bodysgallen Hall
Bodysgallen Hall
Bodysgallen Hall is a manor house in Conwy county borough, north Wales, near the village of Llanrhos. Since 2008 the house has been owned by The National Trust. It is a grade I listed building, and is currently used as a hotel. This listed historical building derives primarily from the 17th...
in Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, and Muchalls Castle
Muchalls Castle
Muchalls Castle stands overlooking the North Sea in the countryside of Kincardine and Mearns, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The lower course is a well preserved double groined 13th century towerhouse structure, built by the Frasers of Muchalls. Upon this structure, the 17th century castle was begun by...
and Newark Castle
Newark Castle, Port Glasgow
Newark Castle is a well-preserved castle sited on the south shore of the estuary of the River Clyde in Port Glasgow, Inverclyde, Scotland, where the firth gradually narrows from the Firth of Clyde and navigation upriver is made difficult by shifting sandbanks...
in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
.
The oldest dovecotes are thought to have been the fortified dovecotes of Upper Egypt, and the domed dovecotes of Iran. In the dry regions, the droppings were in great demand and were collected on uniformly cleaned braids.
Columbaria in Ancient Rome
The presence of dovecotes is not noted in France before the Roman invasion of Gaul by Caesar. The pigeon farm was then a passion in Rome: the Roman, generally round, columbarium had its interior covered with a white coating of marble powder. Varro, ColumellaColumella
Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella is the most important writer on agriculture of the Roman empire. Little is known of his life. He was probably born in Gades , possibly of Roman parents. After a career in the army , he took up farming...
and Pliny the Elder
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...
wrote works on pigeon farms and dovecote construction. In the city of Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
in the time of the Republic and the Empire the internal design of the banks of pigeonholes was adapted for the purpose of disposing of cremated ashes after death: these columbaria
Columbarium
A columbarium is a place for the respectful and usually public storage of cinerary urns . The term comes from the Latin columba and originally referred to compartmentalized housing for doves and pigeons .The Columbarium of Pomponius Hylas is a particularly fine ancient Roman example, rich in...
were generally constructed underground.
Dovecotes of France
The French word for dovecote is pigeonnier or colombier. In some French provinces, especially NormandyNormandy
Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, the dovecotes were built of wood in a very stylized way. Stone was the other popular building material for these old dovecotes. These stone structures were usually built in circular, square and occasionally octagonal form. Some of the medieval French abbeys had very large stone dovecotes on their grounds.
In Brittany
Brittany
Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
the dovecote was sometimes built directly into the upper walls of the farmhouse or manor-house. In rare cases, it was built into the upper gallery of the lookout tower (for example at the Toul-an-Gollet manor in Plesidy, Brittany). Dovecotes of this type are called tour-fuie in French.
Even some of the larger château-forts such as the Château de Suscinio
Château de Suscinio
The Château de Suscinio or de Susinio is a French castle, built in the late Middle Ages, to be the residence of the Dukes of Brittany. It is located near the town of Sarzeau in the département of Morbihan, near the coast of the Atlantic ocean...
in Morbihan, still have a complete dovecote standing on the grounds, outside the moat and walls of the castle.
Colombiers (or pigeonniers) in mediæval France
In France, it was called a colombier or fuie from the 13th century onwards and pigeonnier until the 19th century.In the Middle Ages, particularly in France, the possession of a colombier à pied (dovecote on the ground accessible by foot), constructed separately from the corps de logis of the manor-house (having boulins from the top down), was a privilege of the seigneurial lord. He was granted permission by his overlord to build a dovecote or two on his estate lands. For the other constructions, the dovecote rights (droit de colombier) varied according to the provinces. They had to be in proportion to the importance of the property, placed in a floor above a henhouse, a kennel, a bread oven, even a wine cellar. Generally the aviaries were integrated into a stable, a barn or a shed, and were permitted to use no more than 2.5 hectares of arable land.
Although they produced an excellent fertilizer (known as colombine), the lord's pigeons were often seen as a nuisance by the nearby peasant farmers, in particular at the time of sowing of new crops. In numerous regions (in France) where the right to possess a dovecote was reserved solely for the nobility (Brittany, Normandy, etc.), the complaint rolls very frequently recorded formal requests for the suppression of this privilege and a law for its abolition, which was finally ratified on 4 August 1789 in France.
Dovecotes of Italy
Dovecotes were included in several of the villa designs of Andrea PalladioAndrea Palladio
Andrea Palladio was an architect active in the Republic of Venice. Palladio, influenced by Roman and Greek architecture, primarily by Vitruvius, is widely considered the most influential individual in the history of Western architecture...
. As an integral part of the World Heritage Site
World Heritage Site
A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...
"Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto
Palladian Villas of the Veneto
The City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto is a World Heritage Site protecting a cluster of works by the architect Andrea Palladio. UNESCO inscribed the site on the World Heritage List in 1994. At first the site was called "Vicenza, City of Palladio" and only buildings in the...
", dovecotes such as those at Villa Barbaro
Villa Barbaro
Villa Barbaro, also known as the Villa di Maser, is a large villa at Maser in the Veneto region of northern Italy. It was designed and built by the Italian architect Andrea Palladio, with frescos by Paolo Veronese and sculptures by Alessandro Vittoria for Daniele Barbaro, Patriarch of Aquileia...
enjoy a high level of protection.
Dovecotes of the Netherlands and Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
are mostly associated with pigeon racing
Pigeon racing
Pigeon racing is the sport of releasing specially trained racing pigeons, which then return to their homes over a carefully measured distance...
. They have special features such as trap doors which allow pigeons to fly in, but not out. The Belgian-Dutch word for dovecote is "duivekot".
Dovecotes of Transylvania
The SzekelySzékely
The Székelys or Székely , sometimes also referred to as Szeklers , are a subgroup of the Hungarian people living mostly in the Székely Land, an ethno-cultural region in eastern Transylvania, Romania...
people of Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
incorporate a dovecote into the design of their famous gates. These intricately carved wooden structures feature a large arch with a slatted door, which is meant to admit drivers of carriages and wagons (although today the visitors are probably driving cars and trucks), and smaller arch with a similar door for pedestrians. Across the top of the gate is a dovecote with 6-12 or more pigeonholes and a roof of wooden shingles or tiles.
Dovecotes of the United Kingdom
The Romans may have introduced dovecotes or columbaria to Britain since pigeon holes have been found in Roman ruins at CaerwentCaerwent
Caerwent is a village and community in Monmouthshire, Wales. It is located about five miles west of Chepstow and eleven miles east of Newport, and was founded by the Romans as the market town of Venta Silurum, an important settlement of the Brythonic Silures tribe. The modern village is built...
. However it is believed that doves were not commonly kept there until after the Norman invasion. The earliest use of dovecotes in Britain may have been in the Roman period—although no certain examples are known of that date. The traditional view, however, is that dovecotes were introduced by the Normans. The earliest known examples of dove-keeping occur in Norman castles of the 12th century (for example, at Rochester Castle, Kent, where nest-holes can be seen in the keep), and documentary references also begin in the 12th century. The earliest surviving, definitely-dated free-standing dovecote in this country was built in 1326 at Garway in Herefordshire. The Welsh name colomendy has itself become a place name (similarly in Cornwall:colomen & ty = dove house).
Scotland
Early purpose-built doocots in Scotland are of a "beehive" shape, circular in plan and tapering up to a domed roof with a circular opening at the top. In the late 16th century they were superseded by the "lectern
Lectern
A lectern is a reading desk with a slanted top, usually placed on a stand or affixed to some other form of support, on which documents or books are placed as support for reading aloud, as in a scripture reading, lecture, or sermon...
" type, rectangular with a monopitch roof sloping fairly steeply in a suitable direction. Phantassie Doocot is an unusual example of the beehive type topped with a monopitch roof, and Finavon
Finavon Castle
Finavon Castle lies on the River South Esk, about a quarter of a mile south of Milton of Finavon village and five miles to the north-east of Forfar in Angus, Scotland...
Doocot of the lectern type is the largest doocot in Scotland, with 2,400 nesting boxes. Doocots were built well into the 18th century in increasingly decorative forms, then the need for them died out though some continued to be incorporated into farm buildings as ornamental features. However the 20th century saw a revival of doocot construction by pigeon fanciers
Pigeon keeping
Pigeon keeping is the art and science of breeding domestic pigeons. People have practiced pigeon keeping for about 10,000 years in almost every part of the world...
, and dramatic towers clad in black or green painted corrugated iron can still be found on wasteland near housing estates in Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
and Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
.
Dovecotes of North America
In the U.S. an alternative English name for dovecotes is derived from the French: pigeonaire. This word is more common than "dovecote" in Louisiana and other areas with heavy Francophonic heritage.Québec City
Quebec City
Quebec , also Québec, Quebec City or Québec City is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec and is located within the Capitale-Nationale region. It is the second most populous city in Quebec after Montreal, which is about to the southwest...
, Canada, has a pigeonnier which stands in a square in Old Québec; the Pigeonnier is also the name of the square itself where street artists present their shows.
Architecture
Their location is chosen away from large trees that can house raptors and shielded from prevailing winds and their construction obeys a few safety rules: tight access doors and smooth walls with a protruding band of stones (or other smooth surface) to prohibit the entry of climbing predators (martens, weasels…). The exterior facade was, if necessary, only evenly coated by a horizontal band, in order to prevent their ascent.The dovecote materials can be very varied and shape and dimension extremely diverse:
- the square dovecote with quadruple vaulting: built before the fifteenth century (Roquetaillade Castle, Bordeaux) or Saint-Trojan near Cognac)
- the cylindrical tower: fourteenth century to the sixteenth century, it is covered with curved tiles, flat tiles, stone lauzes roofing and occasionally with a dome of bricks. A window or skylight is the only opening.
- the dovecote on stone or wooden pillars, cylindrical, hexagonal or square;
- the hexagonal dovecote (like the dovecotes of the Royal Mail at Sauzé-Vaussais);
- the square dovecote with flat roof tiles in the seventeenth century and a slate roof in the eighteenth century;
- the lean-to structure against the sides of buildings.
Inside a dovecote could be virtually empty (boulins being located in the walls from bottom to top), the interior reduced to only the structure of a rotating ladder, or "potence", allowing the collection of eggs or squabs and maintenance.
Gallery
A dovecote or dovecot (ScotsScots language
Scots is the Germanic language variety spoken in Lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster . It is sometimes called Lowland Scots to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic, the Celtic language variety spoken in most of the western Highlands and in the Hebrides.Since there are no universally accepted...
: Doocot) is a structure intended to house pigeons or dove
Dove
Pigeons and doves constitute the bird family Columbidae within the order Columbiformes, which include some 300 species of near passerines. In general terms "dove" and "pigeon" are used somewhat interchangeably...
s. Dovecotes may be square or circular free-standing structures or built into the end of a house or barn. They generally contain pigeonhole
Pigeonhole
Pigeonhole may refer to:*Pigeonholes, nesting spaces formed in a dovecote *Pigeonhole, one of the boxes in a pigeon coop...
s for the birds to nest. Pigeons and doves were an important food source historically in Western Europe and were kept for their eggs, flesh, and dung. In Scotland the tradition is continued in modern urban areas.
History and geography
In some cultures, particularly Medieval EuropeEurope
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, the possession of a dovecote was a symbol of status and power and was consequently regulated by law. Only nobles had this special privilege known as droit de colombier. Many ancient manors
Manorialism
Manorialism, an essential element of feudal society, was the organizing principle of rural economy that originated in the villa system of the Late Roman Empire, was widely practiced in medieval western and parts of central Europe, and was slowly replaced by the advent of a money-based market...
in France and the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
have a dovecote (still standing or in ruins) in one section of the manorial enclosure or in nearby fields. Examples include Château de Kerjean in Brittany, France, Houchin
Houchin
Houchin is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France.-Geography:A farming village, situated some south of Béthune near the junction of the D72 and the D171 roads.-Population:-Places of interest:...
, France, Bodysgallen Hall
Bodysgallen Hall
Bodysgallen Hall is a manor house in Conwy county borough, north Wales, near the village of Llanrhos. Since 2008 the house has been owned by The National Trust. It is a grade I listed building, and is currently used as a hotel. This listed historical building derives primarily from the 17th...
in Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, and Muchalls Castle
Muchalls Castle
Muchalls Castle stands overlooking the North Sea in the countryside of Kincardine and Mearns, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The lower course is a well preserved double groined 13th century towerhouse structure, built by the Frasers of Muchalls. Upon this structure, the 17th century castle was begun by...
and Newark Castle
Newark Castle, Port Glasgow
Newark Castle is a well-preserved castle sited on the south shore of the estuary of the River Clyde in Port Glasgow, Inverclyde, Scotland, where the firth gradually narrows from the Firth of Clyde and navigation upriver is made difficult by shifting sandbanks...
in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
.
The oldest dovecotes are thought to have been the fortified dovecotes of Upper Egypt, and the domed dovecotes of Iran. In the dry regions, the droppings were in great demand and were collected on uniformly cleaned braids.
Columbaria in Ancient Rome
The presence of dovecotes is not noted in France before the Roman invasion of Gaul by Caesar. The pigeon farm was then a passion in Rome: the Roman, generally round, columbarium had its interior covered with a white coating of marble powder. Varro, ColumellaColumella
Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella is the most important writer on agriculture of the Roman empire. Little is known of his life. He was probably born in Gades , possibly of Roman parents. After a career in the army , he took up farming...
and Pliny the Elder
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...
wrote works on pigeon farms and dovecote construction. In the city of Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
in the time of the Republic and the Empire the internal design of the banks of pigeonholes was adapted for the purpose of disposing of cremated ashes after death: these columbaria
Columbarium
A columbarium is a place for the respectful and usually public storage of cinerary urns . The term comes from the Latin columba and originally referred to compartmentalized housing for doves and pigeons .The Columbarium of Pomponius Hylas is a particularly fine ancient Roman example, rich in...
were generally constructed underground.
Dovecotes of France
The French word for dovecote is pigeonnier or colombier. In some French provinces, especially NormandyNormandy
Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, the dovecotes were built of wood in a very stylized way. Stone was the other popular building material for these old dovecotes. These stone structures were usually built in circular, square and occasionally octagonal form. Some of the medieval French abbeys had very large stone dovecotes on their grounds.
In Brittany
Brittany
Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
the dovecote was sometimes built directly into the upper walls of the farmhouse or manor-house. In rare cases, it was built into the upper gallery of the lookout tower (for example at the Toul-an-Gollet manor in Plesidy, Brittany). Dovecotes of this type are called tour-fuie in French.
Even some of the larger château-forts such as the Château de Suscinio
Château de Suscinio
The Château de Suscinio or de Susinio is a French castle, built in the late Middle Ages, to be the residence of the Dukes of Brittany. It is located near the town of Sarzeau in the département of Morbihan, near the coast of the Atlantic ocean...
in Morbihan, still have a complete dovecote standing on the grounds, outside the moat and walls of the castle.
Colombiers (or pigeonniers) in mediæval France
In France, it was called a colombier or fuie from the 13th century onwards and pigeonnier until the 19th century.In the Middle Ages, particularly in France, the possession of a colombier à pied (dovecote on the ground accessible by foot), constructed separately from the corps de logis of the manor-house (having boulins from the top down), was a privilege of the seigneurial lord. He was granted permission by his overlord to build a dovecote or two on his estate lands. For the other constructions, the dovecote rights (droit de colombier) varied according to the provinces. They had to be in proportion to the importance of the property, placed in a floor above a henhouse, a kennel, a bread oven, even a wine cellar. Generally the aviaries were integrated into a stable, a barn or a shed, and were permitted to use no more than 2.5 hectares of arable land.
Although they produced an excellent fertilizer (known as colombine), the lord's pigeons were often seen as a nuisance by the nearby peasant farmers, in particular at the time of sowing of new crops. In numerous regions (in France) where the right to possess a dovecote was reserved solely for the nobility (Brittany, Normandy, etc.), the complaint rolls very frequently recorded formal requests for the suppression of this privilege and a law for its abolition, which was finally ratified on 4 August 1789 in France.
Dovecotes of Italy
Dovecotes were included in several of the villa designs of Andrea PalladioAndrea Palladio
Andrea Palladio was an architect active in the Republic of Venice. Palladio, influenced by Roman and Greek architecture, primarily by Vitruvius, is widely considered the most influential individual in the history of Western architecture...
. As an integral part of the World Heritage Site
World Heritage Site
A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...
"Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto
Palladian Villas of the Veneto
The City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto is a World Heritage Site protecting a cluster of works by the architect Andrea Palladio. UNESCO inscribed the site on the World Heritage List in 1994. At first the site was called "Vicenza, City of Palladio" and only buildings in the...
", dovecotes such as those at Villa Barbaro
Villa Barbaro
Villa Barbaro, also known as the Villa di Maser, is a large villa at Maser in the Veneto region of northern Italy. It was designed and built by the Italian architect Andrea Palladio, with frescos by Paolo Veronese and sculptures by Alessandro Vittoria for Daniele Barbaro, Patriarch of Aquileia...
enjoy a high level of protection.
Dovecotes of the Netherlands and Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
are mostly associated with pigeon racing
Pigeon racing
Pigeon racing is the sport of releasing specially trained racing pigeons, which then return to their homes over a carefully measured distance...
. They have special features such as trap doors which allow pigeons to fly in, but not out. The Belgian-Dutch word for dovecote is "duivekot".
Dovecotes of Transylvania
The SzekelySzékely
The Székelys or Székely , sometimes also referred to as Szeklers , are a subgroup of the Hungarian people living mostly in the Székely Land, an ethno-cultural region in eastern Transylvania, Romania...
people of Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
incorporate a dovecote into the design of their famous gates. These intricately carved wooden structures feature a large arch with a slatted door, which is meant to admit drivers of carriages and wagons (although today the visitors are probably driving cars and trucks), and smaller arch with a similar door for pedestrians. Across the top of the gate is a dovecote with 6-12 or more pigeonholes and a roof of wooden shingles or tiles.
Dovecotes of the United Kingdom
The Romans may have introduced dovecotes or columbaria to Britain since pigeon holes have been found in Roman ruins at CaerwentCaerwent
Caerwent is a village and community in Monmouthshire, Wales. It is located about five miles west of Chepstow and eleven miles east of Newport, and was founded by the Romans as the market town of Venta Silurum, an important settlement of the Brythonic Silures tribe. The modern village is built...
. However it is believed that doves were not commonly kept there until after the Norman invasion. The earliest use of dovecotes in Britain may have been in the Roman period—although no certain examples are known of that date. The traditional view, however, is that dovecotes were introduced by the Normans. The earliest known examples of dove-keeping occur in Norman castles of the 12th century (for example, at Rochester Castle, Kent, where nest-holes can be seen in the keep), and documentary references also begin in the 12th century. The earliest surviving, definitely-dated free-standing dovecote in this country was built in 1326 at Garway in Herefordshire. The Welsh name colomendy has itself become a place name (similarly in Cornwall:colomen & ty = dove house).
Scotland
Early purpose-built doocots in Scotland are of a "beehive" shape, circular in plan and tapering up to a domed roof with a circular opening at the top. In the late 16th century they were superseded by the "lectern
Lectern
A lectern is a reading desk with a slanted top, usually placed on a stand or affixed to some other form of support, on which documents or books are placed as support for reading aloud, as in a scripture reading, lecture, or sermon...
" type, rectangular with a monopitch roof sloping fairly steeply in a suitable direction. Phantassie Doocot is an unusual example of the beehive type topped with a monopitch roof, and Finavon
Finavon Castle
Finavon Castle lies on the River South Esk, about a quarter of a mile south of Milton of Finavon village and five miles to the north-east of Forfar in Angus, Scotland...
Doocot of the lectern type is the largest doocot in Scotland, with 2,400 nesting boxes. Doocots were built well into the 18th century in increasingly decorative forms, then the need for them died out though some continued to be incorporated into farm buildings as ornamental features. However the 20th century saw a revival of doocot construction by pigeon fanciers
Pigeon keeping
Pigeon keeping is the art and science of breeding domestic pigeons. People have practiced pigeon keeping for about 10,000 years in almost every part of the world...
, and dramatic towers clad in black or green painted corrugated iron can still be found on wasteland near housing estates in Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
and Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
.
Dovecotes of North America
In the U.S. an alternative English name for dovecotes is derived from the French: pigeonaire. This word is more common than "dovecote" in Louisiana and other areas with heavy Francophonic heritage.Québec City
Quebec City
Quebec , also Québec, Quebec City or Québec City is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec and is located within the Capitale-Nationale region. It is the second most populous city in Quebec after Montreal, which is about to the southwest...
, Canada, has a pigeonnier which stands in a square in Old Québec; the Pigeonnier is also the name of the square itself where street artists present their shows.
Architecture
Their location is chosen away from large trees that can house raptors and shielded from prevailing winds and their construction obeys a few safety rules: tight access doors and smooth walls with a protruding band of stones (or other smooth surface) to prohibit the entry of climbing predators (martens, weasels…). The exterior facade was, if necessary, only evenly coated by a horizontal band, in order to prevent their ascent.The dovecote materials can be very varied and shape and dimension extremely diverse:
- the square dovecote with quadruple vaulting: built before the fifteenth century (Roquetaillade Castle, Bordeaux) or Saint-Trojan near Cognac)
- the cylindrical tower: fourteenth century to the sixteenth century, it is covered with curved tiles, flat tiles, stone lauzes roofing and occasionally with a dome of bricks. A window or skylight is the only opening.
- the dovecote on stone or wooden pillars, cylindrical, hexagonal or square;
- the hexagonal dovecote (like the dovecotes of the Royal Mail at Sauzé-Vaussais);
- the square dovecote with flat roof tiles in the seventeenth century and a slate roof in the eighteenth century;
- the lean-to structure against the sides of buildings.
Inside a dovecote could be virtually empty (boulins being located in the walls from bottom to top), the interior reduced to only the structure of a rotating ladder, or "potence", allowing the collection of eggs or squabs and maintenance.
Gallery
A dovecote or dovecot (ScotsScots language
Scots is the Germanic language variety spoken in Lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster . It is sometimes called Lowland Scots to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic, the Celtic language variety spoken in most of the western Highlands and in the Hebrides.Since there are no universally accepted...
: Doocot) is a structure intended to house pigeons or dove
Dove
Pigeons and doves constitute the bird family Columbidae within the order Columbiformes, which include some 300 species of near passerines. In general terms "dove" and "pigeon" are used somewhat interchangeably...
s. Dovecotes may be square or circular free-standing structures or built into the end of a house or barn. They generally contain pigeonhole
Pigeonhole
Pigeonhole may refer to:*Pigeonholes, nesting spaces formed in a dovecote *Pigeonhole, one of the boxes in a pigeon coop...
s for the birds to nest. Pigeons and doves were an important food source historically in Western Europe and were kept for their eggs, flesh, and dung. In Scotland the tradition is continued in modern urban areas.
History and geography
In some cultures, particularly Medieval EuropeEurope
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, the possession of a dovecote was a symbol of status and power and was consequently regulated by law. Only nobles had this special privilege known as droit de colombier. Many ancient manors
Manorialism
Manorialism, an essential element of feudal society, was the organizing principle of rural economy that originated in the villa system of the Late Roman Empire, was widely practiced in medieval western and parts of central Europe, and was slowly replaced by the advent of a money-based market...
in France and the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
have a dovecote (still standing or in ruins) in one section of the manorial enclosure or in nearby fields. Examples include Château de Kerjean in Brittany, France, Houchin
Houchin
Houchin is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France.-Geography:A farming village, situated some south of Béthune near the junction of the D72 and the D171 roads.-Population:-Places of interest:...
, France, Bodysgallen Hall
Bodysgallen Hall
Bodysgallen Hall is a manor house in Conwy county borough, north Wales, near the village of Llanrhos. Since 2008 the house has been owned by The National Trust. It is a grade I listed building, and is currently used as a hotel. This listed historical building derives primarily from the 17th...
in Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, and Muchalls Castle
Muchalls Castle
Muchalls Castle stands overlooking the North Sea in the countryside of Kincardine and Mearns, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The lower course is a well preserved double groined 13th century towerhouse structure, built by the Frasers of Muchalls. Upon this structure, the 17th century castle was begun by...
and Newark Castle
Newark Castle, Port Glasgow
Newark Castle is a well-preserved castle sited on the south shore of the estuary of the River Clyde in Port Glasgow, Inverclyde, Scotland, where the firth gradually narrows from the Firth of Clyde and navigation upriver is made difficult by shifting sandbanks...
in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
.
The oldest dovecotes are thought to have been the fortified dovecotes of Upper Egypt, and the domed dovecotes of Iran. In the dry regions, the droppings were in great demand and were collected on uniformly cleaned braids.
Columbaria in Ancient Rome
The presence of dovecotes is not noted in France before the Roman invasion of Gaul by Caesar. The pigeon farm was then a passion in Rome: the Roman, generally round, columbarium had its interior covered with a white coating of marble powder. Varro, ColumellaColumella
Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella is the most important writer on agriculture of the Roman empire. Little is known of his life. He was probably born in Gades , possibly of Roman parents. After a career in the army , he took up farming...
and Pliny the Elder
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...
wrote works on pigeon farms and dovecote construction. In the city of Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
in the time of the Republic and the Empire the internal design of the banks of pigeonholes was adapted for the purpose of disposing of cremated ashes after death: these columbaria
Columbarium
A columbarium is a place for the respectful and usually public storage of cinerary urns . The term comes from the Latin columba and originally referred to compartmentalized housing for doves and pigeons .The Columbarium of Pomponius Hylas is a particularly fine ancient Roman example, rich in...
were generally constructed underground.
Dovecotes of France
The French word for dovecote is pigeonnier or colombier. In some French provinces, especially NormandyNormandy
Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, the dovecotes were built of wood in a very stylized way. Stone was the other popular building material for these old dovecotes. These stone structures were usually built in circular, square and occasionally octagonal form. Some of the medieval French abbeys had very large stone dovecotes on their grounds.
In Brittany
Brittany
Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
the dovecote was sometimes built directly into the upper walls of the farmhouse or manor-house. In rare cases, it was built into the upper gallery of the lookout tower (for example at the Toul-an-Gollet manor in Plesidy, Brittany). Dovecotes of this type are called tour-fuie in French.
Even some of the larger château-forts such as the Château de Suscinio
Château de Suscinio
The Château de Suscinio or de Susinio is a French castle, built in the late Middle Ages, to be the residence of the Dukes of Brittany. It is located near the town of Sarzeau in the département of Morbihan, near the coast of the Atlantic ocean...
in Morbihan, still have a complete dovecote standing on the grounds, outside the moat and walls of the castle.
Colombiers (or pigeonniers) in mediæval France
In France, it was called a colombier or fuie from the 13th century onwards and pigeonnier until the 19th century.In the Middle Ages, particularly in France, the possession of a colombier à pied (dovecote on the ground accessible by foot), constructed separately from the corps de logis of the manor-house (having boulins from the top down), was a privilege of the seigneurial lord. He was granted permission by his overlord to build a dovecote or two on his estate lands. For the other constructions, the dovecote rights (droit de colombier) varied according to the provinces. They had to be in proportion to the importance of the property, placed in a floor above a henhouse, a kennel, a bread oven, even a wine cellar. Generally the aviaries were integrated into a stable, a barn or a shed, and were permitted to use no more than 2.5 hectares of arable land.
Although they produced an excellent fertilizer (known as colombine), the lord's pigeons were often seen as a nuisance by the nearby peasant farmers, in particular at the time of sowing of new crops. In numerous regions (in France) where the right to possess a dovecote was reserved solely for the nobility (Brittany, Normandy, etc.), the complaint rolls very frequently recorded formal requests for the suppression of this privilege and a law for its abolition, which was finally ratified on 4 August 1789 in France.
Dovecotes of Italy
Dovecotes were included in several of the villa designs of Andrea PalladioAndrea Palladio
Andrea Palladio was an architect active in the Republic of Venice. Palladio, influenced by Roman and Greek architecture, primarily by Vitruvius, is widely considered the most influential individual in the history of Western architecture...
. As an integral part of the World Heritage Site
World Heritage Site
A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...
"Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto
Palladian Villas of the Veneto
The City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto is a World Heritage Site protecting a cluster of works by the architect Andrea Palladio. UNESCO inscribed the site on the World Heritage List in 1994. At first the site was called "Vicenza, City of Palladio" and only buildings in the...
", dovecotes such as those at Villa Barbaro
Villa Barbaro
Villa Barbaro, also known as the Villa di Maser, is a large villa at Maser in the Veneto region of northern Italy. It was designed and built by the Italian architect Andrea Palladio, with frescos by Paolo Veronese and sculptures by Alessandro Vittoria for Daniele Barbaro, Patriarch of Aquileia...
enjoy a high level of protection.
Dovecotes of the Netherlands and Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
are mostly associated with pigeon racing
Pigeon racing
Pigeon racing is the sport of releasing specially trained racing pigeons, which then return to their homes over a carefully measured distance...
. They have special features such as trap doors which allow pigeons to fly in, but not out. The Belgian-Dutch word for dovecote is "duivekot".
Dovecotes of Transylvania
The SzekelySzékely
The Székelys or Székely , sometimes also referred to as Szeklers , are a subgroup of the Hungarian people living mostly in the Székely Land, an ethno-cultural region in eastern Transylvania, Romania...
people of Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
incorporate a dovecote into the design of their famous gates. These intricately carved wooden structures feature a large arch with a slatted door, which is meant to admit drivers of carriages and wagons (although today the visitors are probably driving cars and trucks), and smaller arch with a similar door for pedestrians. Across the top of the gate is a dovecote with 6-12 or more pigeonholes and a roof of wooden shingles or tiles.
Dovecotes of the United Kingdom
The Romans may have introduced dovecotes or columbaria to Britain since pigeon holes have been found in Roman ruins at CaerwentCaerwent
Caerwent is a village and community in Monmouthshire, Wales. It is located about five miles west of Chepstow and eleven miles east of Newport, and was founded by the Romans as the market town of Venta Silurum, an important settlement of the Brythonic Silures tribe. The modern village is built...
. However it is believed that doves were not commonly kept there until after the Norman invasion. The earliest use of dovecotes in Britain may have been in the Roman period—although no certain examples are known of that date. The traditional view, however, is that dovecotes were introduced by the Normans. The earliest known examples of dove-keeping occur in Norman castles of the 12th century (for example, at Rochester Castle, Kent, where nest-holes can be seen in the keep), and documentary references also begin in the 12th century. The earliest surviving, definitely-dated free-standing dovecote in this country was built in 1326 at Garway in Herefordshire. The Welsh name colomendy has itself become a place name (similarly in Cornwall:colomen & ty = dove house).
Scotland
Early purpose-built doocots in Scotland are of a "beehive" shape, circular in plan and tapering up to a domed roof with a circular opening at the top. In the late 16th century they were superseded by the "lectern
Lectern
A lectern is a reading desk with a slanted top, usually placed on a stand or affixed to some other form of support, on which documents or books are placed as support for reading aloud, as in a scripture reading, lecture, or sermon...
" type, rectangular with a monopitch roof sloping fairly steeply in a suitable direction. Phantassie Doocot is an unusual example of the beehive type topped with a monopitch roof, and Finavon
Finavon Castle
Finavon Castle lies on the River South Esk, about a quarter of a mile south of Milton of Finavon village and five miles to the north-east of Forfar in Angus, Scotland...
Doocot of the lectern type is the largest doocot in Scotland, with 2,400 nesting boxes. Doocots were built well into the 18th century in increasingly decorative forms, then the need for them died out though some continued to be incorporated into farm buildings as ornamental features. However the 20th century saw a revival of doocot construction by pigeon fanciers
Pigeon keeping
Pigeon keeping is the art and science of breeding domestic pigeons. People have practiced pigeon keeping for about 10,000 years in almost every part of the world...
, and dramatic towers clad in black or green painted corrugated iron can still be found on wasteland near housing estates in Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
and Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
.
Image:Eglintondoocot.JPG|
Image:Doocotstables.JPG|
Image:Doocotnests.JPG|
Image:Milton mcdowall mills.jpg|
Milton of Campsie
Milton of Campsie is a small village situated in East Dunbartonshire, Scotland roughly 10 miles north of Glasgow. Nestling at the foot of the Campsie Fells, it is neighboured by Kirkintilloch and Lennoxtown...
with a dovecot in the background.
File:Abbaye_Saint-Vincent_(Le_Mans)_Facade_Sud.jpg|Dovecote at the Abbaye Saint-Vincent in Le Mans, France
File:Dovecote_HHPP_purfleet.JPG|The Dovecote at High House Purfleet
High House Purfleet
High House is the collective name for a group of historic buildings in Purfleet, Thurrock, Essex , which was used as a farm for hundreds of years, with a Grade II listed house and barn, but with the addition of one of the best dovecotes in Southern England, which is a Scheduled Ancient Monument...
, Essex
Dovecotes of North America
In the U.S. an alternative English name for dovecotes is derived from the French: pigeonaire. This word is more common than "dovecote" in Louisiana and other areas with heavy Francophonic heritage.Québec City
Quebec City
Quebec , also Québec, Quebec City or Québec City is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec and is located within the Capitale-Nationale region. It is the second most populous city in Quebec after Montreal, which is about to the southwest...
, Canada, has a pigeonnier which stands in a square in Old Québec; the Pigeonnier is also the name of the square itself where street artists present their shows.
Architecture
Their location is chosen away from large trees that can house raptors and shielded from prevailing winds and their construction obeys a few safety rules: tight access doors and smooth walls with a protruding band of stones (or other smooth surface) to prohibit the entry of climbing predators (martens, weasels…). The exterior facade was, if necessary, only evenly coated by a horizontal band, in order to prevent their ascent.The dovecote materials can be very varied and shape and dimension extremely diverse:
- the square dovecote with quadruple vaulting: built before the fifteenth century (Roquetaillade Castle, Bordeaux) or Saint-Trojan near Cognac)
- the cylindrical tower: fourteenth century to the sixteenth century, it is covered with curved tiles, flat tiles, stone lauzes roofing and occasionally with a dome of bricks. A window or skylight is the only opening.
- the dovecote on stone or wooden pillars, cylindrical, hexagonal or square;
- the hexagonal dovecote (like the dovecotes of the Royal Mail at Sauzé-Vaussais);
- the square dovecote with flat roof tiles in the seventeenth century and a slate roof in the eighteenth century;
- the lean-to structure against the sides of buildings.
Inside a dovecote could be virtually empty (boulins being located in the walls from bottom to top), the interior reduced to only the structure of a rotating ladder, or "potence", allowing the collection of eggs or squabs and maintenance.
Gallery
A dovecote or dovecot (ScotsScots language
Scots is the Germanic language variety spoken in Lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster . It is sometimes called Lowland Scots to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic, the Celtic language variety spoken in most of the western Highlands and in the Hebrides.Since there are no universally accepted...
: Doocot) is a structure intended to house pigeons or dove
Dove
Pigeons and doves constitute the bird family Columbidae within the order Columbiformes, which include some 300 species of near passerines. In general terms "dove" and "pigeon" are used somewhat interchangeably...
s. Dovecotes may be square or circular free-standing structures or built into the end of a house or barn. They generally contain pigeonhole
Pigeonhole
Pigeonhole may refer to:*Pigeonholes, nesting spaces formed in a dovecote *Pigeonhole, one of the boxes in a pigeon coop...
s for the birds to nest. Pigeons and doves were an important food source historically in Western Europe and were kept for their eggs, flesh, and dung. In Scotland the tradition is continued in modern urban areas.
History and geography
In some cultures, particularly Medieval EuropeEurope
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, the possession of a dovecote was a symbol of status and power and was consequently regulated by law. Only nobles had this special privilege known as droit de colombier. Many ancient manors
Manorialism
Manorialism, an essential element of feudal society, was the organizing principle of rural economy that originated in the villa system of the Late Roman Empire, was widely practiced in medieval western and parts of central Europe, and was slowly replaced by the advent of a money-based market...
in France and the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
have a dovecote (still standing or in ruins) in one section of the manorial enclosure or in nearby fields. Examples include Château de Kerjean in Brittany, France, Houchin
Houchin
Houchin is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France.-Geography:A farming village, situated some south of Béthune near the junction of the D72 and the D171 roads.-Population:-Places of interest:...
, France, Bodysgallen Hall
Bodysgallen Hall
Bodysgallen Hall is a manor house in Conwy county borough, north Wales, near the village of Llanrhos. Since 2008 the house has been owned by The National Trust. It is a grade I listed building, and is currently used as a hotel. This listed historical building derives primarily from the 17th...
in Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, and Muchalls Castle
Muchalls Castle
Muchalls Castle stands overlooking the North Sea in the countryside of Kincardine and Mearns, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The lower course is a well preserved double groined 13th century towerhouse structure, built by the Frasers of Muchalls. Upon this structure, the 17th century castle was begun by...
and Newark Castle
Newark Castle, Port Glasgow
Newark Castle is a well-preserved castle sited on the south shore of the estuary of the River Clyde in Port Glasgow, Inverclyde, Scotland, where the firth gradually narrows from the Firth of Clyde and navigation upriver is made difficult by shifting sandbanks...
in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
.
The oldest dovecotes are thought to have been the fortified dovecotes of Upper Egypt, and the domed dovecotes of Iran. In the dry regions, the droppings were in great demand and were collected on uniformly cleaned braids.
Columbaria in Ancient Rome
The presence of dovecotes is not noted in France before the Roman invasion of Gaul by Caesar. The pigeon farm was then a passion in Rome: the Roman, generally round, columbarium had its interior covered with a white coating of marble powder. Varro, ColumellaColumella
Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella is the most important writer on agriculture of the Roman empire. Little is known of his life. He was probably born in Gades , possibly of Roman parents. After a career in the army , he took up farming...
and Pliny the Elder
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...
wrote works on pigeon farms and dovecote construction. In the city of Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
in the time of the Republic and the Empire the internal design of the banks of pigeonholes was adapted for the purpose of disposing of cremated ashes after death: these columbaria
Columbarium
A columbarium is a place for the respectful and usually public storage of cinerary urns . The term comes from the Latin columba and originally referred to compartmentalized housing for doves and pigeons .The Columbarium of Pomponius Hylas is a particularly fine ancient Roman example, rich in...
were generally constructed underground.
Dovecotes of France
The French word for dovecote is pigeonnier or colombier. In some French provinces, especially NormandyNormandy
Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, the dovecotes were built of wood in a very stylized way. Stone was the other popular building material for these old dovecotes. These stone structures were usually built in circular, square and occasionally octagonal form. Some of the medieval French abbeys had very large stone dovecotes on their grounds.
In Brittany
Brittany
Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
the dovecote was sometimes built directly into the upper walls of the farmhouse or manor-house. In rare cases, it was built into the upper gallery of the lookout tower (for example at the Toul-an-Gollet manor in Plesidy, Brittany). Dovecotes of this type are called tour-fuie in French.
Even some of the larger château-forts such as the Château de Suscinio
Château de Suscinio
The Château de Suscinio or de Susinio is a French castle, built in the late Middle Ages, to be the residence of the Dukes of Brittany. It is located near the town of Sarzeau in the département of Morbihan, near the coast of the Atlantic ocean...
in Morbihan, still have a complete dovecote standing on the grounds, outside the moat and walls of the castle.
Colombiers (or pigeonniers) in mediæval France
In France, it was called a colombier or fuie from the 13th century onwards and pigeonnier until the 19th century.In the Middle Ages, particularly in France, the possession of a colombier à pied (dovecote on the ground accessible by foot), constructed separately from the corps de logis of the manor-house (having boulins from the top down), was a privilege of the seigneurial lord. He was granted permission by his overlord to build a dovecote or two on his estate lands. For the other constructions, the dovecote rights (droit de colombier) varied according to the provinces. They had to be in proportion to the importance of the property, placed in a floor above a henhouse, a kennel, a bread oven, even a wine cellar. Generally the aviaries were integrated into a stable, a barn or a shed, and were permitted to use no more than 2.5 hectares of arable land.
Although they produced an excellent fertilizer (known as colombine), the lord's pigeons were often seen as a nuisance by the nearby peasant farmers, in particular at the time of sowing of new crops. In numerous regions (in France) where the right to possess a dovecote was reserved solely for the nobility (Brittany, Normandy, etc.), the complaint rolls very frequently recorded formal requests for the suppression of this privilege and a law for its abolition, which was finally ratified on 4 August 1789 in France.
Dovecotes of Italy
Dovecotes were included in several of the villa designs of Andrea PalladioAndrea Palladio
Andrea Palladio was an architect active in the Republic of Venice. Palladio, influenced by Roman and Greek architecture, primarily by Vitruvius, is widely considered the most influential individual in the history of Western architecture...
. As an integral part of the World Heritage Site
World Heritage Site
A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...
"Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto
Palladian Villas of the Veneto
The City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto is a World Heritage Site protecting a cluster of works by the architect Andrea Palladio. UNESCO inscribed the site on the World Heritage List in 1994. At first the site was called "Vicenza, City of Palladio" and only buildings in the...
", dovecotes such as those at Villa Barbaro
Villa Barbaro
Villa Barbaro, also known as the Villa di Maser, is a large villa at Maser in the Veneto region of northern Italy. It was designed and built by the Italian architect Andrea Palladio, with frescos by Paolo Veronese and sculptures by Alessandro Vittoria for Daniele Barbaro, Patriarch of Aquileia...
enjoy a high level of protection.
Dovecotes of the Netherlands and Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
are mostly associated with pigeon racing
Pigeon racing
Pigeon racing is the sport of releasing specially trained racing pigeons, which then return to their homes over a carefully measured distance...
. They have special features such as trap doors which allow pigeons to fly in, but not out. The Belgian-Dutch word for dovecote is "duivekot".
Dovecotes of Transylvania
The SzekelySzékely
The Székelys or Székely , sometimes also referred to as Szeklers , are a subgroup of the Hungarian people living mostly in the Székely Land, an ethno-cultural region in eastern Transylvania, Romania...
people of Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
incorporate a dovecote into the design of their famous gates. These intricately carved wooden structures feature a large arch with a slatted door, which is meant to admit drivers of carriages and wagons (although today the visitors are probably driving cars and trucks), and smaller arch with a similar door for pedestrians. Across the top of the gate is a dovecote with 6-12 or more pigeonholes and a roof of wooden shingles or tiles.
Dovecotes of the United Kingdom
The Romans may have introduced dovecotes or columbaria to Britain since pigeon holes have been found in Roman ruins at CaerwentCaerwent
Caerwent is a village and community in Monmouthshire, Wales. It is located about five miles west of Chepstow and eleven miles east of Newport, and was founded by the Romans as the market town of Venta Silurum, an important settlement of the Brythonic Silures tribe. The modern village is built...
. However it is believed that doves were not commonly kept there until after the Norman invasion. The earliest use of dovecotes in Britain may have been in the Roman period—although no certain examples are known of that date. The traditional view, however, is that dovecotes were introduced by the Normans. The earliest known examples of dove-keeping occur in Norman castles of the 12th century (for example, at Rochester Castle, Kent, where nest-holes can be seen in the keep), and documentary references also begin in the 12th century. The earliest surviving, definitely-dated free-standing dovecote in this country was built in 1326 at Garway in Herefordshire. The Welsh name colomendy has itself become a place name (similarly in Cornwall:colomen & ty = dove house).
Scotland
Early purpose-built doocots in Scotland are of a "beehive" shape, circular in plan and tapering up to a domed roof with a circular opening at the top. In the late 16th century they were superseded by the "lectern
Lectern
A lectern is a reading desk with a slanted top, usually placed on a stand or affixed to some other form of support, on which documents or books are placed as support for reading aloud, as in a scripture reading, lecture, or sermon...
" type, rectangular with a monopitch roof sloping fairly steeply in a suitable direction. Phantassie Doocot is an unusual example of the beehive type topped with a monopitch roof, and Finavon
Finavon Castle
Finavon Castle lies on the River South Esk, about a quarter of a mile south of Milton of Finavon village and five miles to the north-east of Forfar in Angus, Scotland...
Doocot of the lectern type is the largest doocot in Scotland, with 2,400 nesting boxes. Doocots were built well into the 18th century in increasingly decorative forms, then the need for them died out though some continued to be incorporated into farm buildings as ornamental features. However the 20th century saw a revival of doocot construction by pigeon fanciers
Pigeon keeping
Pigeon keeping is the art and science of breeding domestic pigeons. People have practiced pigeon keeping for about 10,000 years in almost every part of the world...
, and dramatic towers clad in black or green painted corrugated iron can still be found on wasteland near housing estates in Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
and Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
.
Image:Eglintondoocot.JPG|
Image:Doocotstables.JPG|
Image:Doocotnests.JPG|
Image:Milton mcdowall mills.jpg|
Milton of Campsie
Milton of Campsie is a small village situated in East Dunbartonshire, Scotland roughly 10 miles north of Glasgow. Nestling at the foot of the Campsie Fells, it is neighboured by Kirkintilloch and Lennoxtown...
with a dovecot in the background.
File:Abbaye_Saint-Vincent_(Le_Mans)_Facade_Sud.jpg|Dovecote at the Abbaye Saint-Vincent in Le Mans, France
File:Dovecote_HHPP_purfleet.JPG|The Dovecote at High House Purfleet
High House Purfleet
High House is the collective name for a group of historic buildings in Purfleet, Thurrock, Essex , which was used as a farm for hundreds of years, with a Grade II listed house and barn, but with the addition of one of the best dovecotes in Southern England, which is a Scheduled Ancient Monument...
, Essex
Dovecotes of North America
In the U.S. an alternative English name for dovecotes is derived from the French: pigeonaire. This word is more common than "dovecote" in Louisiana and other areas with heavy Francophonic heritage.Québec City
Quebec City
Quebec , also Québec, Quebec City or Québec City is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec and is located within the Capitale-Nationale region. It is the second most populous city in Quebec after Montreal, which is about to the southwest...
, Canada, has a pigeonnier which stands in a square in Old Québec; the Pigeonnier is also the name of the square itself where street artists present their shows.
Architecture
Their location is chosen away from large trees that can house raptors and shielded from prevailing winds and their construction obeys a few safety rules: tight access doors and smooth walls with a protruding band of stones (or other smooth surface) to prohibit the entry of climbing predators (martens, weasels…). The exterior facade was, if necessary, only evenly coated by a horizontal band, in order to prevent their ascent.The dovecote materials can be very varied and shape and dimension extremely diverse:
- the square dovecote with quadruple vaulting: built before the fifteenth century (Roquetaillade Castle, Bordeaux) or Saint-Trojan near Cognac)
- the cylindrical tower: fourteenth century to the sixteenth century, it is covered with curved tiles, flat tiles, stone lauzes roofing and occasionally with a dome of bricks. A window or skylight is the only opening.
- the dovecote on stone or wooden pillars, cylindrical, hexagonal or square;
- the hexagonal dovecote (like the dovecotes of the Royal Mail at Sauzé-Vaussais);
- the square dovecote with flat roof tiles in the seventeenth century and a slate roof in the eighteenth century;
- the lean-to structure against the sides of buildings.
Inside a dovecote could be virtually empty (boulins being located in the walls from bottom to top), the interior reduced to only the structure of a rotating ladder, or "potence", allowing the collection of eggs or squabs and maintenance.
Gallery
A dovecote or dovecot (ScotsScots language
Scots is the Germanic language variety spoken in Lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster . It is sometimes called Lowland Scots to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic, the Celtic language variety spoken in most of the western Highlands and in the Hebrides.Since there are no universally accepted...
: Doocot) is a structure intended to house pigeons or dove
Dove
Pigeons and doves constitute the bird family Columbidae within the order Columbiformes, which include some 300 species of near passerines. In general terms "dove" and "pigeon" are used somewhat interchangeably...
s. Dovecotes may be square or circular free-standing structures or built into the end of a house or barn. They generally contain pigeonhole
Pigeonhole
Pigeonhole may refer to:*Pigeonholes, nesting spaces formed in a dovecote *Pigeonhole, one of the boxes in a pigeon coop...
s for the birds to nest. Pigeons and doves were an important food source historically in Western Europe and were kept for their eggs, flesh, and dung. In Scotland the tradition is continued in modern urban areas.
History and geography
In some cultures, particularly Medieval EuropeEurope
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, the possession of a dovecote was a symbol of status and power and was consequently regulated by law. Only nobles had this special privilege known as droit de colombier. Many ancient manors
Manorialism
Manorialism, an essential element of feudal society, was the organizing principle of rural economy that originated in the villa system of the Late Roman Empire, was widely practiced in medieval western and parts of central Europe, and was slowly replaced by the advent of a money-based market...
in France and the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
have a dovecote (still standing or in ruins) in one section of the manorial enclosure or in nearby fields. Examples include Château de Kerjean in Brittany, France, Houchin
Houchin
Houchin is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France.-Geography:A farming village, situated some south of Béthune near the junction of the D72 and the D171 roads.-Population:-Places of interest:...
, France, Bodysgallen Hall
Bodysgallen Hall
Bodysgallen Hall is a manor house in Conwy county borough, north Wales, near the village of Llanrhos. Since 2008 the house has been owned by The National Trust. It is a grade I listed building, and is currently used as a hotel. This listed historical building derives primarily from the 17th...
in Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, and Muchalls Castle
Muchalls Castle
Muchalls Castle stands overlooking the North Sea in the countryside of Kincardine and Mearns, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The lower course is a well preserved double groined 13th century towerhouse structure, built by the Frasers of Muchalls. Upon this structure, the 17th century castle was begun by...
and Newark Castle
Newark Castle, Port Glasgow
Newark Castle is a well-preserved castle sited on the south shore of the estuary of the River Clyde in Port Glasgow, Inverclyde, Scotland, where the firth gradually narrows from the Firth of Clyde and navigation upriver is made difficult by shifting sandbanks...
in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
.
The oldest dovecotes are thought to have been the fortified dovecotes of Upper Egypt, and the domed dovecotes of Iran. In the dry regions, the droppings were in great demand and were collected on uniformly cleaned braids.
Columbaria in Ancient Rome
The presence of dovecotes is not noted in France before the Roman invasion of Gaul by Caesar. The pigeon farm was then a passion in Rome: the Roman, generally round, columbarium had its interior covered with a white coating of marble powder. Varro, ColumellaColumella
Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella is the most important writer on agriculture of the Roman empire. Little is known of his life. He was probably born in Gades , possibly of Roman parents. After a career in the army , he took up farming...
and Pliny the Elder
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...
wrote works on pigeon farms and dovecote construction. In the city of Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
in the time of the Republic and the Empire the internal design of the banks of pigeonholes was adapted for the purpose of disposing of cremated ashes after death: these columbaria
Columbarium
A columbarium is a place for the respectful and usually public storage of cinerary urns . The term comes from the Latin columba and originally referred to compartmentalized housing for doves and pigeons .The Columbarium of Pomponius Hylas is a particularly fine ancient Roman example, rich in...
were generally constructed underground.
Dovecotes of France
The French word for dovecote is pigeonnier or colombier. In some French provinces, especially NormandyNormandy
Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, the dovecotes were built of wood in a very stylized way. Stone was the other popular building material for these old dovecotes. These stone structures were usually built in circular, square and occasionally octagonal form. Some of the medieval French abbeys had very large stone dovecotes on their grounds.
In Brittany
Brittany
Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
the dovecote was sometimes built directly into the upper walls of the farmhouse or manor-house. In rare cases, it was built into the upper gallery of the lookout tower (for example at the Toul-an-Gollet manor in Plesidy, Brittany). Dovecotes of this type are called tour-fuie in French.
Even some of the larger château-forts such as the Château de Suscinio
Château de Suscinio
The Château de Suscinio or de Susinio is a French castle, built in the late Middle Ages, to be the residence of the Dukes of Brittany. It is located near the town of Sarzeau in the département of Morbihan, near the coast of the Atlantic ocean...
in Morbihan, still have a complete dovecote standing on the grounds, outside the moat and walls of the castle.
Colombiers (or pigeonniers) in mediæval France
In France, it was called a colombier or fuie from the 13th century onwards and pigeonnier until the 19th century.In the Middle Ages, particularly in France, the possession of a colombier à pied (dovecote on the ground accessible by foot), constructed separately from the corps de logis of the manor-house (having boulins from the top down), was a privilege of the seigneurial lord. He was granted permission by his overlord to build a dovecote or two on his estate lands. For the other constructions, the dovecote rights (droit de colombier) varied according to the provinces. They had to be in proportion to the importance of the property, placed in a floor above a henhouse, a kennel, a bread oven, even a wine cellar. Generally the aviaries were integrated into a stable, a barn or a shed, and were permitted to use no more than 2.5 hectares of arable land.
Although they produced an excellent fertilizer (known as colombine), the lord's pigeons were often seen as a nuisance by the nearby peasant farmers, in particular at the time of sowing of new crops. In numerous regions (in France) where the right to possess a dovecote was reserved solely for the nobility (Brittany, Normandy, etc.), the complaint rolls very frequently recorded formal requests for the suppression of this privilege and a law for its abolition, which was finally ratified on 4 August 1789 in France.
Dovecotes of Italy
Dovecotes were included in several of the villa designs of Andrea PalladioAndrea Palladio
Andrea Palladio was an architect active in the Republic of Venice. Palladio, influenced by Roman and Greek architecture, primarily by Vitruvius, is widely considered the most influential individual in the history of Western architecture...
. As an integral part of the World Heritage Site
World Heritage Site
A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...
"Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto
Palladian Villas of the Veneto
The City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto is a World Heritage Site protecting a cluster of works by the architect Andrea Palladio. UNESCO inscribed the site on the World Heritage List in 1994. At first the site was called "Vicenza, City of Palladio" and only buildings in the...
", dovecotes such as those at Villa Barbaro
Villa Barbaro
Villa Barbaro, also known as the Villa di Maser, is a large villa at Maser in the Veneto region of northern Italy. It was designed and built by the Italian architect Andrea Palladio, with frescos by Paolo Veronese and sculptures by Alessandro Vittoria for Daniele Barbaro, Patriarch of Aquileia...
enjoy a high level of protection.
Dovecotes of the Netherlands and Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
are mostly associated with pigeon racing
Pigeon racing
Pigeon racing is the sport of releasing specially trained racing pigeons, which then return to their homes over a carefully measured distance...
. They have special features such as trap doors which allow pigeons to fly in, but not out. The Belgian-Dutch word for dovecote is "duivekot".
Dovecotes of Transylvania
The SzekelySzékely
The Székelys or Székely , sometimes also referred to as Szeklers , are a subgroup of the Hungarian people living mostly in the Székely Land, an ethno-cultural region in eastern Transylvania, Romania...
people of Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
incorporate a dovecote into the design of their famous gates. These intricately carved wooden structures feature a large arch with a slatted door, which is meant to admit drivers of carriages and wagons (although today the visitors are probably driving cars and trucks), and smaller arch with a similar door for pedestrians. Across the top of the gate is a dovecote with 6-12 or more pigeonholes and a roof of wooden shingles or tiles.
Dovecotes of the United Kingdom
The Romans may have introduced dovecotes or columbaria to Britain since pigeon holes have been found in Roman ruins at CaerwentCaerwent
Caerwent is a village and community in Monmouthshire, Wales. It is located about five miles west of Chepstow and eleven miles east of Newport, and was founded by the Romans as the market town of Venta Silurum, an important settlement of the Brythonic Silures tribe. The modern village is built...
. However it is believed that doves were not commonly kept there until after the Norman invasion. The earliest use of dovecotes in Britain may have been in the Roman period—although no certain examples are known of that date. The traditional view, however, is that dovecotes were introduced by the Normans. The earliest known examples of dove-keeping occur in Norman castles of the 12th century (for example, at Rochester Castle, Kent, where nest-holes can be seen in the keep), and documentary references also begin in the 12th century. The earliest surviving, definitely-dated free-standing dovecote in this country was built in 1326 at Garway in Herefordshire. The Welsh name colomendy has itself become a place name (similarly in Cornwall:colomen & ty = dove house).
Scotland
Early purpose-built doocots in Scotland are of a "beehive" shape, circular in plan and tapering up to a domed roof with a circular opening at the top. In the late 16th century they were superseded by the "lectern
Lectern
A lectern is a reading desk with a slanted top, usually placed on a stand or affixed to some other form of support, on which documents or books are placed as support for reading aloud, as in a scripture reading, lecture, or sermon...
" type, rectangular with a monopitch roof sloping fairly steeply in a suitable direction. Phantassie Doocot is an unusual example of the beehive type topped with a monopitch roof, and Finavon
Finavon Castle
Finavon Castle lies on the River South Esk, about a quarter of a mile south of Milton of Finavon village and five miles to the north-east of Forfar in Angus, Scotland...
Doocot of the lectern type is the largest doocot in Scotland, with 2,400 nesting boxes. Doocots were built well into the 18th century in increasingly decorative forms, then the need for them died out though some continued to be incorporated into farm buildings as ornamental features. However the 20th century saw a revival of doocot construction by pigeon fanciers
Pigeon keeping
Pigeon keeping is the art and science of breeding domestic pigeons. People have practiced pigeon keeping for about 10,000 years in almost every part of the world...
, and dramatic towers clad in black or green painted corrugated iron can still be found on wasteland near housing estates in Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
and Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
.
Dovecotes of North America
In the U.S. an alternative English name for dovecotes is derived from the French: pigeonaire. This word is more common than "dovecote" in Louisiana and other areas with heavy Francophonic heritage.Québec City
Quebec City
Quebec , also Québec, Quebec City or Québec City is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec and is located within the Capitale-Nationale region. It is the second most populous city in Quebec after Montreal, which is about to the southwest...
, Canada, has a pigeonnier which stands in a square in Old Québec; the Pigeonnier is also the name of the square itself where street artists present their shows.
Architecture
Their location is chosen away from large trees that can house raptors and shielded from prevailing winds and their construction obeys a few safety rules: tight access doors and smooth walls with a protruding band of stones (or other smooth surface) to prohibit the entry of climbing predators (martens, weasels…). The exterior facade was, if necessary, only evenly coated by a horizontal band, in order to prevent their ascent.The dovecote materials can be very varied and shape and dimension extremely diverse:
- the square dovecote with quadruple vaulting: built before the fifteenth century (Roquetaillade Castle, Bordeaux) or Saint-Trojan near Cognac)
- the cylindrical tower: fourteenth century to the sixteenth century, it is covered with curved tiles, flat tiles, stone lauzes roofing and occasionally with a dome of bricks. A window or skylight is the only opening.
- the dovecote on stone or wooden pillars, cylindrical, hexagonal or square;
- the hexagonal dovecote (like the dovecotes of the Royal Mail at Sauzé-Vaussais);
- the square dovecote with flat roof tiles in the seventeenth century and a slate roof in the eighteenth century;
- the lean-to structure against the sides of buildings.
Inside a dovecote could be virtually empty (boulins being located in the walls from bottom to top), the interior reduced to only the structure of a rotating ladder, or "potence", allowing the collection of eggs or squabs and maintenance.
Gallery
A dovecote or dovecot (ScotsScots language
Scots is the Germanic language variety spoken in Lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster . It is sometimes called Lowland Scots to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic, the Celtic language variety spoken in most of the western Highlands and in the Hebrides.Since there are no universally accepted...
: Doocot) is a structure intended to house pigeons or dove
Dove
Pigeons and doves constitute the bird family Columbidae within the order Columbiformes, which include some 300 species of near passerines. In general terms "dove" and "pigeon" are used somewhat interchangeably...
s. Dovecotes may be square or circular free-standing structures or built into the end of a house or barn. They generally contain pigeonhole
Pigeonhole
Pigeonhole may refer to:*Pigeonholes, nesting spaces formed in a dovecote *Pigeonhole, one of the boxes in a pigeon coop...
s for the birds to nest. Pigeons and doves were an important food source historically in Western Europe and were kept for their eggs, flesh, and dung. In Scotland the tradition is continued in modern urban areas.
History and geography
In some cultures, particularly Medieval EuropeEurope
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, the possession of a dovecote was a symbol of status and power and was consequently regulated by law. Only nobles had this special privilege known as droit de colombier. Many ancient manors
Manorialism
Manorialism, an essential element of feudal society, was the organizing principle of rural economy that originated in the villa system of the Late Roman Empire, was widely practiced in medieval western and parts of central Europe, and was slowly replaced by the advent of a money-based market...
in France and the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
have a dovecote (still standing or in ruins) in one section of the manorial enclosure or in nearby fields. Examples include Château de Kerjean in Brittany, France, Houchin
Houchin
Houchin is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France.-Geography:A farming village, situated some south of Béthune near the junction of the D72 and the D171 roads.-Population:-Places of interest:...
, France, Bodysgallen Hall
Bodysgallen Hall
Bodysgallen Hall is a manor house in Conwy county borough, north Wales, near the village of Llanrhos. Since 2008 the house has been owned by The National Trust. It is a grade I listed building, and is currently used as a hotel. This listed historical building derives primarily from the 17th...
in Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, and Muchalls Castle
Muchalls Castle
Muchalls Castle stands overlooking the North Sea in the countryside of Kincardine and Mearns, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The lower course is a well preserved double groined 13th century towerhouse structure, built by the Frasers of Muchalls. Upon this structure, the 17th century castle was begun by...
and Newark Castle
Newark Castle, Port Glasgow
Newark Castle is a well-preserved castle sited on the south shore of the estuary of the River Clyde in Port Glasgow, Inverclyde, Scotland, where the firth gradually narrows from the Firth of Clyde and navigation upriver is made difficult by shifting sandbanks...
in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
.
The oldest dovecotes are thought to have been the fortified dovecotes of Upper Egypt, and the domed dovecotes of Iran. In the dry regions, the droppings were in great demand and were collected on uniformly cleaned braids.
Columbaria in Ancient Rome
The presence of dovecotes is not noted in France before the Roman invasion of Gaul by Caesar. The pigeon farm was then a passion in Rome: the Roman, generally round, columbarium had its interior covered with a white coating of marble powder. Varro, ColumellaColumella
Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella is the most important writer on agriculture of the Roman empire. Little is known of his life. He was probably born in Gades , possibly of Roman parents. After a career in the army , he took up farming...
and Pliny the Elder
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...
wrote works on pigeon farms and dovecote construction. In the city of Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
in the time of the Republic and the Empire the internal design of the banks of pigeonholes was adapted for the purpose of disposing of cremated ashes after death: these columbaria
Columbarium
A columbarium is a place for the respectful and usually public storage of cinerary urns . The term comes from the Latin columba and originally referred to compartmentalized housing for doves and pigeons .The Columbarium of Pomponius Hylas is a particularly fine ancient Roman example, rich in...
were generally constructed underground.
Dovecotes of France
The French word for dovecote is pigeonnier or colombier. In some French provinces, especially NormandyNormandy
Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, the dovecotes were built of wood in a very stylized way. Stone was the other popular building material for these old dovecotes. These stone structures were usually built in circular, square and occasionally octagonal form. Some of the medieval French abbeys had very large stone dovecotes on their grounds.
In Brittany
Brittany
Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
the dovecote was sometimes built directly into the upper walls of the farmhouse or manor-house. In rare cases, it was built into the upper gallery of the lookout tower (for example at the Toul-an-Gollet manor in Plesidy, Brittany). Dovecotes of this type are called tour-fuie in French.
Even some of the larger château-forts such as the Château de Suscinio
Château de Suscinio
The Château de Suscinio or de Susinio is a French castle, built in the late Middle Ages, to be the residence of the Dukes of Brittany. It is located near the town of Sarzeau in the département of Morbihan, near the coast of the Atlantic ocean...
in Morbihan, still have a complete dovecote standing on the grounds, outside the moat and walls of the castle.
Colombiers (or pigeonniers) in mediæval France
In France, it was called a colombier or fuie from the 13th century onwards and pigeonnier until the 19th century.In the Middle Ages, particularly in France, the possession of a colombier à pied (dovecote on the ground accessible by foot), constructed separately from the corps de logis of the manor-house (having boulins from the top down), was a privilege of the seigneurial lord. He was granted permission by his overlord to build a dovecote or two on his estate lands. For the other constructions, the dovecote rights (droit de colombier) varied according to the provinces. They had to be in proportion to the importance of the property, placed in a floor above a henhouse, a kennel, a bread oven, even a wine cellar. Generally the aviaries were integrated into a stable, a barn or a shed, and were permitted to use no more than 2.5 hectares of arable land.
Although they produced an excellent fertilizer (known as colombine), the lord's pigeons were often seen as a nuisance by the nearby peasant farmers, in particular at the time of sowing of new crops. In numerous regions (in France) where the right to possess a dovecote was reserved solely for the nobility (Brittany, Normandy, etc.), the complaint rolls very frequently recorded formal requests for the suppression of this privilege and a law for its abolition, which was finally ratified on 4 August 1789 in France.
Dovecotes of Italy
Dovecotes were included in several of the villa designs of Andrea PalladioAndrea Palladio
Andrea Palladio was an architect active in the Republic of Venice. Palladio, influenced by Roman and Greek architecture, primarily by Vitruvius, is widely considered the most influential individual in the history of Western architecture...
. As an integral part of the World Heritage Site
World Heritage Site
A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...
"Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto
Palladian Villas of the Veneto
The City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto is a World Heritage Site protecting a cluster of works by the architect Andrea Palladio. UNESCO inscribed the site on the World Heritage List in 1994. At first the site was called "Vicenza, City of Palladio" and only buildings in the...
", dovecotes such as those at Villa Barbaro
Villa Barbaro
Villa Barbaro, also known as the Villa di Maser, is a large villa at Maser in the Veneto region of northern Italy. It was designed and built by the Italian architect Andrea Palladio, with frescos by Paolo Veronese and sculptures by Alessandro Vittoria for Daniele Barbaro, Patriarch of Aquileia...
enjoy a high level of protection.
Dovecotes of the Netherlands and Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
are mostly associated with pigeon racing
Pigeon racing
Pigeon racing is the sport of releasing specially trained racing pigeons, which then return to their homes over a carefully measured distance...
. They have special features such as trap doors which allow pigeons to fly in, but not out. The Belgian-Dutch word for dovecote is "duivekot".
Dovecotes of Transylvania
The SzekelySzékely
The Székelys or Székely , sometimes also referred to as Szeklers , are a subgroup of the Hungarian people living mostly in the Székely Land, an ethno-cultural region in eastern Transylvania, Romania...
people of Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
incorporate a dovecote into the design of their famous gates. These intricately carved wooden structures feature a large arch with a slatted door, which is meant to admit drivers of carriages and wagons (although today the visitors are probably driving cars and trucks), and smaller arch with a similar door for pedestrians. Across the top of the gate is a dovecote with 6-12 or more pigeonholes and a roof of wooden shingles or tiles.
Dovecotes of the United Kingdom
The Romans may have introduced dovecotes or columbaria to Britain since pigeon holes have been found in Roman ruins at CaerwentCaerwent
Caerwent is a village and community in Monmouthshire, Wales. It is located about five miles west of Chepstow and eleven miles east of Newport, and was founded by the Romans as the market town of Venta Silurum, an important settlement of the Brythonic Silures tribe. The modern village is built...
. However it is believed that doves were not commonly kept there until after the Norman invasion. The earliest use of dovecotes in Britain may have been in the Roman period—although no certain examples are known of that date. The traditional view, however, is that dovecotes were introduced by the Normans. The earliest known examples of dove-keeping occur in Norman castles of the 12th century (for example, at Rochester Castle, Kent, where nest-holes can be seen in the keep), and documentary references also begin in the 12th century. The earliest surviving, definitely-dated free-standing dovecote in this country was built in 1326 at Garway in Herefordshire. The Welsh name colomendy has itself become a place name (similarly in Cornwall:colomen & ty = dove house).
Scotland
Early purpose-built doocots in Scotland are of a "beehive" shape, circular in plan and tapering up to a domed roof with a circular opening at the top. In the late 16th century they were superseded by the "lectern
Lectern
A lectern is a reading desk with a slanted top, usually placed on a stand or affixed to some other form of support, on which documents or books are placed as support for reading aloud, as in a scripture reading, lecture, or sermon...
" type, rectangular with a monopitch roof sloping fairly steeply in a suitable direction. Phantassie Doocot is an unusual example of the beehive type topped with a monopitch roof, and Finavon
Finavon Castle
Finavon Castle lies on the River South Esk, about a quarter of a mile south of Milton of Finavon village and five miles to the north-east of Forfar in Angus, Scotland...
Doocot of the lectern type is the largest doocot in Scotland, with 2,400 nesting boxes. Doocots were built well into the 18th century in increasingly decorative forms, then the need for them died out though some continued to be incorporated into farm buildings as ornamental features. However the 20th century saw a revival of doocot construction by pigeon fanciers
Pigeon keeping
Pigeon keeping is the art and science of breeding domestic pigeons. People have practiced pigeon keeping for about 10,000 years in almost every part of the world...
, and dramatic towers clad in black or green painted corrugated iron can still be found on wasteland near housing estates in Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
and Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
.
Image:Eglintondoocot.JPG|
Image:Doocotstables.JPG|
Image:Doocotnests.JPG|
Image:Milton mcdowall mills.jpg|
Milton of Campsie
Milton of Campsie is a small village situated in East Dunbartonshire, Scotland roughly 10 miles north of Glasgow. Nestling at the foot of the Campsie Fells, it is neighboured by Kirkintilloch and Lennoxtown...
with a dovecot in the background.
File:Abbaye_Saint-Vincent_(Le_Mans)_Facade_Sud.jpg|Dovecote at the Abbaye Saint-Vincent in Le Mans, France
File:Dovecote_HHPP_purfleet.JPG|The Dovecote at High House Purfleet
High House Purfleet
High House is the collective name for a group of historic buildings in Purfleet, Thurrock, Essex , which was used as a farm for hundreds of years, with a Grade II listed house and barn, but with the addition of one of the best dovecotes in Southern England, which is a Scheduled Ancient Monument...
, Essex
Dovecotes of North America
In the U.S. an alternative English name for dovecotes is derived from the French: pigeonaire. This word is more common than "dovecote" in Louisiana and other areas with heavy Francophonic heritage.Québec City
Quebec City
Quebec , also Québec, Quebec City or Québec City is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec and is located within the Capitale-Nationale region. It is the second most populous city in Quebec after Montreal, which is about to the southwest...
, Canada, has a pigeonnier which stands in a square in Old Québec; the Pigeonnier is also the name of the square itself where street artists present their shows.
Architecture
Their location is chosen away from large trees that can house raptors and shielded from prevailing winds and their construction obeys a few safety rules: tight access doors and smooth walls with a protruding band of stones (or other smooth surface) to prohibit the entry of climbing predators (martens, weasels…). The exterior facade was, if necessary, only evenly coated by a horizontal band, in order to prevent their ascent.The dovecote materials can be very varied and shape and dimension extremely diverse:
- the square dovecote with quadruple vaulting: built before the fifteenth century (Roquetaillade Castle, Bordeaux) or Saint-Trojan near Cognac)
- the cylindrical tower: fourteenth century to the sixteenth century, it is covered with curved tiles, flat tiles, stone lauzes roofing and occasionally with a dome of bricks. A window or skylight is the only opening.
- the dovecote on stone or wooden pillars, cylindrical, hexagonal or square;
- the hexagonal dovecote (like the dovecotes of the Royal Mail at Sauzé-Vaussais);
- the square dovecote with flat roof tiles in the seventeenth century and a slate roof in the eighteenth century;
- the lean-to structure against the sides of buildings.
Inside a dovecote could be virtually empty (boulins being located in the walls from bottom to top), the interior reduced to only the structure of a rotating ladder, or "potence", allowing the collection of eggs or squabs and maintenance.
Gallery
A dovecote or dovecot (ScotsScots language
Scots is the Germanic language variety spoken in Lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster . It is sometimes called Lowland Scots to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic, the Celtic language variety spoken in most of the western Highlands and in the Hebrides.Since there are no universally accepted...
: Doocot) is a structure intended to house pigeons or dove
Dove
Pigeons and doves constitute the bird family Columbidae within the order Columbiformes, which include some 300 species of near passerines. In general terms "dove" and "pigeon" are used somewhat interchangeably...
s. Dovecotes may be square or circular free-standing structures or built into the end of a house or barn. They generally contain pigeonhole
Pigeonhole
Pigeonhole may refer to:*Pigeonholes, nesting spaces formed in a dovecote *Pigeonhole, one of the boxes in a pigeon coop...
s for the birds to nest. Pigeons and doves were an important food source historically in Western Europe and were kept for their eggs, flesh, and dung. In Scotland the tradition is continued in modern urban areas.
History and geography
In some cultures, particularly Medieval EuropeEurope
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, the possession of a dovecote was a symbol of status and power and was consequently regulated by law. Only nobles had this special privilege known as droit de colombier. Many ancient manors
Manorialism
Manorialism, an essential element of feudal society, was the organizing principle of rural economy that originated in the villa system of the Late Roman Empire, was widely practiced in medieval western and parts of central Europe, and was slowly replaced by the advent of a money-based market...
in France and the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
have a dovecote (still standing or in ruins) in one section of the manorial enclosure or in nearby fields. Examples include Château de Kerjean in Brittany, France, Houchin
Houchin
Houchin is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France.-Geography:A farming village, situated some south of Béthune near the junction of the D72 and the D171 roads.-Population:-Places of interest:...
, France, Bodysgallen Hall
Bodysgallen Hall
Bodysgallen Hall is a manor house in Conwy county borough, north Wales, near the village of Llanrhos. Since 2008 the house has been owned by The National Trust. It is a grade I listed building, and is currently used as a hotel. This listed historical building derives primarily from the 17th...
in Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, and Muchalls Castle
Muchalls Castle
Muchalls Castle stands overlooking the North Sea in the countryside of Kincardine and Mearns, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The lower course is a well preserved double groined 13th century towerhouse structure, built by the Frasers of Muchalls. Upon this structure, the 17th century castle was begun by...
and Newark Castle
Newark Castle, Port Glasgow
Newark Castle is a well-preserved castle sited on the south shore of the estuary of the River Clyde in Port Glasgow, Inverclyde, Scotland, where the firth gradually narrows from the Firth of Clyde and navigation upriver is made difficult by shifting sandbanks...
in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
.
The oldest dovecotes are thought to have been the fortified dovecotes of Upper Egypt, and the domed dovecotes of Iran. In the dry regions, the droppings were in great demand and were collected on uniformly cleaned braids.
Columbaria in Ancient Rome
The presence of dovecotes is not noted in France before the Roman invasion of Gaul by Caesar. The pigeon farm was then a passion in Rome: the Roman, generally round, columbarium had its interior covered with a white coating of marble powder. Varro, ColumellaColumella
Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella is the most important writer on agriculture of the Roman empire. Little is known of his life. He was probably born in Gades , possibly of Roman parents. After a career in the army , he took up farming...
and Pliny the Elder
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...
wrote works on pigeon farms and dovecote construction. In the city of Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
in the time of the Republic and the Empire the internal design of the banks of pigeonholes was adapted for the purpose of disposing of cremated ashes after death: these columbaria
Columbarium
A columbarium is a place for the respectful and usually public storage of cinerary urns . The term comes from the Latin columba and originally referred to compartmentalized housing for doves and pigeons .The Columbarium of Pomponius Hylas is a particularly fine ancient Roman example, rich in...
were generally constructed underground.
Dovecotes of France
The French word for dovecote is pigeonnier or colombier. In some French provinces, especially NormandyNormandy
Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, the dovecotes were built of wood in a very stylized way. Stone was the other popular building material for these old dovecotes. These stone structures were usually built in circular, square and occasionally octagonal form. Some of the medieval French abbeys had very large stone dovecotes on their grounds.
In Brittany
Brittany
Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
the dovecote was sometimes built directly into the upper walls of the farmhouse or manor-house. In rare cases, it was built into the upper gallery of the lookout tower (for example at the Toul-an-Gollet manor in Plesidy, Brittany). Dovecotes of this type are called tour-fuie in French.
Even some of the larger château-forts such as the Château de Suscinio
Château de Suscinio
The Château de Suscinio or de Susinio is a French castle, built in the late Middle Ages, to be the residence of the Dukes of Brittany. It is located near the town of Sarzeau in the département of Morbihan, near the coast of the Atlantic ocean...
in Morbihan, still have a complete dovecote standing on the grounds, outside the moat and walls of the castle.
Colombiers (or pigeonniers) in mediæval France
In France, it was called a colombier or fuie from the 13th century onwards and pigeonnier until the 19th century.In the Middle Ages, particularly in France, the possession of a colombier à pied (dovecote on the ground accessible by foot), constructed separately from the corps de logis of the manor-house (having boulins from the top down), was a privilege of the seigneurial lord. He was granted permission by his overlord to build a dovecote or two on his estate lands. For the other constructions, the dovecote rights (droit de colombier) varied according to the provinces. They had to be in proportion to the importance of the property, placed in a floor above a henhouse, a kennel, a bread oven, even a wine cellar. Generally the aviaries were integrated into a stable, a barn or a shed, and were permitted to use no more than 2.5 hectares of arable land.
Although they produced an excellent fertilizer (known as colombine), the lord's pigeons were often seen as a nuisance by the nearby peasant farmers, in particular at the time of sowing of new crops. In numerous regions (in France) where the right to possess a dovecote was reserved solely for the nobility (Brittany, Normandy, etc.), the complaint rolls very frequently recorded formal requests for the suppression of this privilege and a law for its abolition, which was finally ratified on 4 August 1789 in France.
Dovecotes of Italy
Dovecotes were included in several of the villa designs of Andrea PalladioAndrea Palladio
Andrea Palladio was an architect active in the Republic of Venice. Palladio, influenced by Roman and Greek architecture, primarily by Vitruvius, is widely considered the most influential individual in the history of Western architecture...
. As an integral part of the World Heritage Site
World Heritage Site
A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...
"Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto
Palladian Villas of the Veneto
The City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto is a World Heritage Site protecting a cluster of works by the architect Andrea Palladio. UNESCO inscribed the site on the World Heritage List in 1994. At first the site was called "Vicenza, City of Palladio" and only buildings in the...
", dovecotes such as those at Villa Barbaro
Villa Barbaro
Villa Barbaro, also known as the Villa di Maser, is a large villa at Maser in the Veneto region of northern Italy. It was designed and built by the Italian architect Andrea Palladio, with frescos by Paolo Veronese and sculptures by Alessandro Vittoria for Daniele Barbaro, Patriarch of Aquileia...
enjoy a high level of protection.
Dovecotes of the Netherlands and Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
are mostly associated with pigeon racing
Pigeon racing
Pigeon racing is the sport of releasing specially trained racing pigeons, which then return to their homes over a carefully measured distance...
. They have special features such as trap doors which allow pigeons to fly in, but not out. The Belgian-Dutch word for dovecote is "duivekot".
Dovecotes of Transylvania
The SzekelySzékely
The Székelys or Székely , sometimes also referred to as Szeklers , are a subgroup of the Hungarian people living mostly in the Székely Land, an ethno-cultural region in eastern Transylvania, Romania...
people of Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
incorporate a dovecote into the design of their famous gates. These intricately carved wooden structures feature a large arch with a slatted door, which is meant to admit drivers of carriages and wagons (although today the visitors are probably driving cars and trucks), and smaller arch with a similar door for pedestrians. Across the top of the gate is a dovecote with 6-12 or more pigeonholes and a roof of wooden shingles or tiles.
Dovecotes of the United Kingdom
The Romans may have introduced dovecotes or columbaria to Britain since pigeon holes have been found in Roman ruins at CaerwentCaerwent
Caerwent is a village and community in Monmouthshire, Wales. It is located about five miles west of Chepstow and eleven miles east of Newport, and was founded by the Romans as the market town of Venta Silurum, an important settlement of the Brythonic Silures tribe. The modern village is built...
. However it is believed that doves were not commonly kept there until after the Norman invasion. The earliest use of dovecotes in Britain may have been in the Roman period—although no certain examples are known of that date. The traditional view, however, is that dovecotes were introduced by the Normans. The earliest known examples of dove-keeping occur in Norman castles of the 12th century (for example, at Rochester Castle, Kent, where nest-holes can be seen in the keep), and documentary references also begin in the 12th century. The earliest surviving, definitely-dated free-standing dovecote in this country was built in 1326 at Garway in Herefordshire. The Welsh name colomendy has itself become a place name (similarly in Cornwall:colomen & ty = dove house).
Scotland
Early purpose-built doocots in Scotland are of a "beehive" shape, circular in plan and tapering up to a domed roof with a circular opening at the top. In the late 16th century they were superseded by the "lectern
Lectern
A lectern is a reading desk with a slanted top, usually placed on a stand or affixed to some other form of support, on which documents or books are placed as support for reading aloud, as in a scripture reading, lecture, or sermon...
" type, rectangular with a monopitch roof sloping fairly steeply in a suitable direction. Phantassie Doocot is an unusual example of the beehive type topped with a monopitch roof, and Finavon
Finavon Castle
Finavon Castle lies on the River South Esk, about a quarter of a mile south of Milton of Finavon village and five miles to the north-east of Forfar in Angus, Scotland...
Doocot of the lectern type is the largest doocot in Scotland, with 2,400 nesting boxes. Doocots were built well into the 18th century in increasingly decorative forms, then the need for them died out though some continued to be incorporated into farm buildings as ornamental features. However the 20th century saw a revival of doocot construction by pigeon fanciers
Pigeon keeping
Pigeon keeping is the art and science of breeding domestic pigeons. People have practiced pigeon keeping for about 10,000 years in almost every part of the world...
, and dramatic towers clad in black or green painted corrugated iron can still be found on wasteland near housing estates in Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
and Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
.
Image:Eglintondoocot.JPG|
Image:Doocotstables.JPG|
Image:Doocotnests.JPG|
Image:Milton mcdowall mills.jpg|
Milton of Campsie
Milton of Campsie is a small village situated in East Dunbartonshire, Scotland roughly 10 miles north of Glasgow. Nestling at the foot of the Campsie Fells, it is neighboured by Kirkintilloch and Lennoxtown...
with a dovecot in the background.
File:Abbaye_Saint-Vincent_(Le_Mans)_Facade_Sud.jpg|Dovecote at the Abbaye Saint-Vincent in Le Mans, France
File:Dovecote_HHPP_purfleet.JPG|The Dovecote at High House Purfleet
High House Purfleet
High House is the collective name for a group of historic buildings in Purfleet, Thurrock, Essex , which was used as a farm for hundreds of years, with a Grade II listed house and barn, but with the addition of one of the best dovecotes in Southern England, which is a Scheduled Ancient Monument...
, Essex
Dovecotes of North America
In the U.S. an alternative English name for dovecotes is derived from the French: pigeonaire. This word is more common than "dovecote" in Louisiana and other areas with heavy Francophonic heritage.Québec City
Quebec City
Quebec , also Québec, Quebec City or Québec City is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec and is located within the Capitale-Nationale region. It is the second most populous city in Quebec after Montreal, which is about to the southwest...
, Canada, has a pigeonnier which stands in a square in Old Québec; the Pigeonnier is also the name of the square itself where street artists present their shows.
Architecture
Their location is chosen away from large trees that can house raptors and shielded from prevailing winds and their construction obeys a few safety rules: tight access doors and smooth walls with a protruding band of stones (or other smooth surface) to prohibit the entry of climbing predators (martens, weasels…). The exterior facade was, if necessary, only evenly coated by a horizontal band, in order to prevent their ascent.The dovecote materials can be very varied and shape and dimension extremely diverse:
- the square dovecote with quadruple vaulting: built before the fifteenth century (Roquetaillade Castle, Bordeaux) or Saint-Trojan near Cognac)
- the cylindrical tower: fourteenth century to the sixteenth century, it is covered with curved tiles, flat tiles, stone lauzes roofing and occasionally with a dome of bricks. A window or skylight is the only opening.
- the dovecote on stone or wooden pillars, cylindrical, hexagonal or square;
- the hexagonal dovecote (like the dovecotes of the Royal Mail at Sauzé-Vaussais);
- the square dovecote with flat roof tiles in the seventeenth century and a slate roof in the eighteenth century;
- the lean-to structure against the sides of buildings.
Inside a dovecote could be virtually empty (boulins being located in the walls from bottom to top), the interior reduced to only the structure of a rotating ladder, or "potence", allowing the collection of eggs or squabs and maintenance.
Gallery
Image:Colombier at Hamptonne in Jersey.jpg|A colombier (dovecote) in Jersey
Jersey
Jersey, officially the Bailiwick of Jersey is a British Crown Dependency off the coast of Normandy, France. As well as the island of Jersey itself, the bailiwick includes two groups of small islands that are no longer permanently inhabited, the Minquiers and Écréhous, and the Pierres de Lecq and...
, Channel Islands
Channel Islands
The Channel Islands are an archipelago of British Crown Dependencies in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two separate bailiwicks: the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey...
Image:Pigeontower.jpg|The Pigeon Tower at Rivington
Rivington
Rivington is a small village and civil parish of the Borough of Chorley, Lancashire, England, occupying . It is about southeast of Chorley and about northwest of Bolton. Rivington is situated on the fringe of the West Pennine Moors, at the foot of Rivington Pike...
on the West Pennine Moors
West Pennine Moors
The West Pennine Moors cover an area of approximately of moorland and reservoirs in Lancashire and Greater Manchester, England.The West Pennine Moors are separated from the main Pennine range by the Irwell Valley. The moorland includes Withnell, Anglezarke and Rivington Moors in the extreme west,...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
Image:Newark Castle doocot int.jpg|Looking up inside the doocot at Newark Castle
Newark Castle, Port Glasgow
Newark Castle is a well-preserved castle sited on the south shore of the estuary of the River Clyde in Port Glasgow, Inverclyde, Scotland, where the firth gradually narrows from the Firth of Clyde and navigation upriver is made difficult by shifting sandbanks...
Image:Newark Castle doocot.jpg|At Newark Castle, Port Glasgow, a corner tower of the outer defensive wall was converted to a doocot in 1597 when the wall was demolished.
Image:Dovecote St Andrews.jpg|Doocot at St Andrews
St Andrews
St Andrews is a university town and former royal burgh on the east coast of Fife in Scotland. The town is named after Saint Andrew the Apostle.St Andrews has a population of 16,680, making this the fifth largest settlement in Fife....
, restored by the St. Andrews Preservation Trust
Image:Glasgow doocot Firrhill 1.jpg|Urban doocot in Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
, Scotland
Image:Glasgow doocot Partick 1.jpg|Urban doocot in Glasgow, Scotland
Image:Old-dovecot.jpg|A (derelict) dovecot in Zemst
Zemst
Zemst is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Flemish Brabant. The municipality comprises the villages of Elewijt, Eppegem, Hofstade, Weerde, Laar and Zemst proper. On January 1, 2006 Zemst had a total population of 21,327...
, Belgium
Image:Limburg_Brothers.jpg|The month of February in the Limburg Brothers' Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry
Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry
The Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry or simply the Très Riches Heures is a richly decorated book of hours commissioned by John, Duke of Berry, around 1410...
, a painting dated 1416, showing a dovecote
Image:Dove house.jpg|Small dovecote at the Lost Gardens of Heligan
Lost Gardens of Heligan
The Lost Gardens of Heligan, near Mevagissey in Cornwall, are one of the most popular botanical gardens in the UK. The style of the gardens is typical of the nineteenth century Gardenesque style, with areas of different character and in different design styles.The gardens were created by members of...
Image:The_Dovecote.jpg|
Long Wittenham
Long Wittenham is a village and civil parish north of Didcot, and southeast of Abingdon. It was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred it from Berkshire to Oxfordshire, and from the former Wallingford Rural District to the new district of South Oxfordshire.It used to be...
.
A dovecote or dovecot (Scots
Scots language
Scots is the Germanic language variety spoken in Lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster . It is sometimes called Lowland Scots to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic, the Celtic language variety spoken in most of the western Highlands and in the Hebrides.Since there are no universally accepted...
: Doocot) is a structure intended to house pigeons or dove
Dove
Pigeons and doves constitute the bird family Columbidae within the order Columbiformes, which include some 300 species of near passerines. In general terms "dove" and "pigeon" are used somewhat interchangeably...
s. Dovecotes may be square or circular free-standing structures or built into the end of a house or barn. They generally contain pigeonhole
Pigeonhole
Pigeonhole may refer to:*Pigeonholes, nesting spaces formed in a dovecote *Pigeonhole, one of the boxes in a pigeon coop...
s for the birds to nest. Pigeons and doves were an important food source historically in Western Europe and were kept for their eggs, flesh, and dung. In Scotland the tradition is continued in modern urban areas.
History and geography
In some cultures, particularly Medieval EuropeEurope
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, the possession of a dovecote was a symbol of status and power and was consequently regulated by law. Only nobles had this special privilege known as droit de colombier. Many ancient manors
Manorialism
Manorialism, an essential element of feudal society, was the organizing principle of rural economy that originated in the villa system of the Late Roman Empire, was widely practiced in medieval western and parts of central Europe, and was slowly replaced by the advent of a money-based market...
in France and the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
have a dovecote (still standing or in ruins) in one section of the manorial enclosure or in nearby fields. Examples include Château de Kerjean in Brittany, France, Houchin
Houchin
Houchin is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France.-Geography:A farming village, situated some south of Béthune near the junction of the D72 and the D171 roads.-Population:-Places of interest:...
, France, Bodysgallen Hall
Bodysgallen Hall
Bodysgallen Hall is a manor house in Conwy county borough, north Wales, near the village of Llanrhos. Since 2008 the house has been owned by The National Trust. It is a grade I listed building, and is currently used as a hotel. This listed historical building derives primarily from the 17th...
in Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, and Muchalls Castle
Muchalls Castle
Muchalls Castle stands overlooking the North Sea in the countryside of Kincardine and Mearns, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The lower course is a well preserved double groined 13th century towerhouse structure, built by the Frasers of Muchalls. Upon this structure, the 17th century castle was begun by...
and Newark Castle
Newark Castle, Port Glasgow
Newark Castle is a well-preserved castle sited on the south shore of the estuary of the River Clyde in Port Glasgow, Inverclyde, Scotland, where the firth gradually narrows from the Firth of Clyde and navigation upriver is made difficult by shifting sandbanks...
in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
.
The oldest dovecotes are thought to have been the fortified dovecotes of Upper Egypt, and the domed dovecotes of Iran. In the dry regions, the droppings were in great demand and were collected on uniformly cleaned braids.
Columbaria in Ancient Rome
The presence of dovecotes is not noted in France before the Roman invasion of Gaul by Caesar. The pigeon farm was then a passion in Rome: the Roman, generally round, columbarium had its interior covered with a white coating of marble powder. Varro, ColumellaColumella
Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella is the most important writer on agriculture of the Roman empire. Little is known of his life. He was probably born in Gades , possibly of Roman parents. After a career in the army , he took up farming...
and Pliny the Elder
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...
wrote works on pigeon farms and dovecote construction. In the city of Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
in the time of the Republic and the Empire the internal design of the banks of pigeonholes was adapted for the purpose of disposing of cremated ashes after death: these columbaria
Columbarium
A columbarium is a place for the respectful and usually public storage of cinerary urns . The term comes from the Latin columba and originally referred to compartmentalized housing for doves and pigeons .The Columbarium of Pomponius Hylas is a particularly fine ancient Roman example, rich in...
were generally constructed underground.
Dovecotes of France
The French word for dovecote is pigeonnier or colombier. In some French provinces, especially NormandyNormandy
Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, the dovecotes were built of wood in a very stylized way. Stone was the other popular building material for these old dovecotes. These stone structures were usually built in circular, square and occasionally octagonal form. Some of the medieval French abbeys had very large stone dovecotes on their grounds.
In Brittany
Brittany
Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
the dovecote was sometimes built directly into the upper walls of the farmhouse or manor-house. In rare cases, it was built into the upper gallery of the lookout tower (for example at the Toul-an-Gollet manor in Plesidy, Brittany). Dovecotes of this type are called tour-fuie in French.
Even some of the larger château-forts such as the Château de Suscinio
Château de Suscinio
The Château de Suscinio or de Susinio is a French castle, built in the late Middle Ages, to be the residence of the Dukes of Brittany. It is located near the town of Sarzeau in the département of Morbihan, near the coast of the Atlantic ocean...
in Morbihan, still have a complete dovecote standing on the grounds, outside the moat and walls of the castle.
Colombiers (or pigeonniers) in mediæval France
In France, it was called a colombier or fuie from the 13th century onwards and pigeonnier until the 19th century.In the Middle Ages, particularly in France, the possession of a colombier à pied (dovecote on the ground accessible by foot), constructed separately from the corps de logis of the manor-house (having boulins from the top down), was a privilege of the seigneurial lord. He was granted permission by his overlord to build a dovecote or two on his estate lands. For the other constructions, the dovecote rights (droit de colombier) varied according to the provinces. They had to be in proportion to the importance of the property, placed in a floor above a henhouse, a kennel, a bread oven, even a wine cellar. Generally the aviaries were integrated into a stable, a barn or a shed, and were permitted to use no more than 2.5 hectares of arable land.
Although they produced an excellent fertilizer (known as colombine), the lord's pigeons were often seen as a nuisance by the nearby peasant farmers, in particular at the time of sowing of new crops. In numerous regions (in France) where the right to possess a dovecote was reserved solely for the nobility (Brittany, Normandy, etc.), the complaint rolls very frequently recorded formal requests for the suppression of this privilege and a law for its abolition, which was finally ratified on 4 August 1789 in France.
Dovecotes of Italy
Dovecotes were included in several of the villa designs of Andrea PalladioAndrea Palladio
Andrea Palladio was an architect active in the Republic of Venice. Palladio, influenced by Roman and Greek architecture, primarily by Vitruvius, is widely considered the most influential individual in the history of Western architecture...
. As an integral part of the World Heritage Site
World Heritage Site
A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...
"Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto
Palladian Villas of the Veneto
The City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto is a World Heritage Site protecting a cluster of works by the architect Andrea Palladio. UNESCO inscribed the site on the World Heritage List in 1994. At first the site was called "Vicenza, City of Palladio" and only buildings in the...
", dovecotes such as those at Villa Barbaro
Villa Barbaro
Villa Barbaro, also known as the Villa di Maser, is a large villa at Maser in the Veneto region of northern Italy. It was designed and built by the Italian architect Andrea Palladio, with frescos by Paolo Veronese and sculptures by Alessandro Vittoria for Daniele Barbaro, Patriarch of Aquileia...
enjoy a high level of protection.
Dovecotes of the Netherlands and Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
are mostly associated with pigeon racing
Pigeon racing
Pigeon racing is the sport of releasing specially trained racing pigeons, which then return to their homes over a carefully measured distance...
. They have special features such as trap doors which allow pigeons to fly in, but not out. The Belgian-Dutch word for dovecote is "duivekot".
Dovecotes of Transylvania
The SzekelySzékely
The Székelys or Székely , sometimes also referred to as Szeklers , are a subgroup of the Hungarian people living mostly in the Székely Land, an ethno-cultural region in eastern Transylvania, Romania...
people of Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
incorporate a dovecote into the design of their famous gates. These intricately carved wooden structures feature a large arch with a slatted door, which is meant to admit drivers of carriages and wagons (although today the visitors are probably driving cars and trucks), and smaller arch with a similar door for pedestrians. Across the top of the gate is a dovecote with 6-12 or more pigeonholes and a roof of wooden shingles or tiles.
Dovecotes of the United Kingdom
The Romans may have introduced dovecotes or columbaria to Britain since pigeon holes have been found in Roman ruins at CaerwentCaerwent
Caerwent is a village and community in Monmouthshire, Wales. It is located about five miles west of Chepstow and eleven miles east of Newport, and was founded by the Romans as the market town of Venta Silurum, an important settlement of the Brythonic Silures tribe. The modern village is built...
. However it is believed that doves were not commonly kept there until after the Norman invasion. The earliest use of dovecotes in Britain may have been in the Roman period—although no certain examples are known of that date. The traditional view, however, is that dovecotes were introduced by the Normans. The earliest known examples of dove-keeping occur in Norman castles of the 12th century (for example, at Rochester Castle, Kent, where nest-holes can be seen in the keep), and documentary references also begin in the 12th century. The earliest surviving, definitely-dated free-standing dovecote in this country was built in 1326 at Garway in Herefordshire. The Welsh name colomendy has itself become a place name (similarly in Cornwall:colomen & ty = dove house).
Scotland
Early purpose-built doocots in Scotland are of a "beehive" shape, circular in plan and tapering up to a domed roof with a circular opening at the top. In the late 16th century they were superseded by the "lectern
Lectern
A lectern is a reading desk with a slanted top, usually placed on a stand or affixed to some other form of support, on which documents or books are placed as support for reading aloud, as in a scripture reading, lecture, or sermon...
" type, rectangular with a monopitch roof sloping fairly steeply in a suitable direction. Phantassie Doocot is an unusual example of the beehive type topped with a monopitch roof, and Finavon
Finavon Castle
Finavon Castle lies on the River South Esk, about a quarter of a mile south of Milton of Finavon village and five miles to the north-east of Forfar in Angus, Scotland...
Doocot of the lectern type is the largest doocot in Scotland, with 2,400 nesting boxes. Doocots were built well into the 18th century in increasingly decorative forms, then the need for them died out though some continued to be incorporated into farm buildings as ornamental features. However the 20th century saw a revival of doocot construction by pigeon fanciers
Pigeon keeping
Pigeon keeping is the art and science of breeding domestic pigeons. People have practiced pigeon keeping for about 10,000 years in almost every part of the world...
, and dramatic towers clad in black or green painted corrugated iron can still be found on wasteland near housing estates in Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
and Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
.
Image:Eglintondoocot.JPG|
Image:Doocotstables.JPG|
Image:Doocotnests.JPG|
Image:Milton mcdowall mills.jpg|
Milton of Campsie
Milton of Campsie is a small village situated in East Dunbartonshire, Scotland roughly 10 miles north of Glasgow. Nestling at the foot of the Campsie Fells, it is neighboured by Kirkintilloch and Lennoxtown...
with a dovecot in the background.Stoddart, John (1800), Remarks on local Scenery and Manners in Scotland. London: William Miller
William Miller (British publisher)
William Richard Beckford Miller was one of the leading English publishers of the early 19th century.-Origins and early life:William Miller was born at Bungay, Suffolk, on 25 March 1769, the son of Thomas Miller , a bookseller and antiquarian, and Sally Kingsbury of Waveney House, Bungay...
;facing p. 206
File:Abbaye_Saint-Vincent_(Le_Mans)_Facade_Sud.jpg|Dovecote at the Abbaye Saint-Vincent in Le Mans, France
File:Dovecote_HHPP_purfleet.JPG|The Dovecote at High House Purfleet
High House Purfleet
High House is the collective name for a group of historic buildings in Purfleet, Thurrock, Essex , which was used as a farm for hundreds of years, with a Grade II listed house and barn, but with the addition of one of the best dovecotes in Southern England, which is a Scheduled Ancient Monument...
, Essex
Dovecotes of North America
In the U.S. an alternative English name for dovecotes is derived from the French: pigeonaire. This word is more common than "dovecote" in Louisiana and other areas with heavy Francophonic heritage.Québec City
Quebec City
Quebec , also Québec, Quebec City or Québec City is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec and is located within the Capitale-Nationale region. It is the second most populous city in Quebec after Montreal, which is about to the southwest...
, Canada, has a pigeonnier which stands in a square in Old Québec; the Pigeonnier is also the name of the square itself where street artists present their shows.
Architecture
Their location is chosen away from large trees that can house raptors and shielded from prevailing winds and their construction obeys a few safety rules: tight access doors and smooth walls with a protruding band of stones (or other smooth surface) to prohibit the entry of climbing predators (martens, weasels…). The exterior facade was, if necessary, only evenly coated by a horizontal band, in order to prevent their ascent.The dovecote materials can be very varied and shape and dimension extremely diverse:
- the square dovecote with quadruple vaulting: built before the fifteenth century (Roquetaillade Castle, Bordeaux) or Saint-Trojan near Cognac)
- the cylindrical tower: fourteenth century to the sixteenth century, it is covered with curved tiles, flat tiles, stone lauzes roofing and occasionally with a dome of bricks. A window or skylight is the only opening.
- the dovecote on stone or wooden pillars, cylindrical, hexagonal or square;
- the hexagonal dovecote (like the dovecotes of the Royal Mail at Sauzé-Vaussais);
- the square dovecote with flat roof tiles in the seventeenth century and a slate roof in the eighteenth century;
- the lean-to structure against the sides of buildings.
Inside a dovecote could be virtually empty (boulins being located in the walls from bottom to top), the interior reduced to only the structure of a rotating ladder, or "potence", allowing the collection of eggs or squabs and maintenance.
Gallery
Image:Colombier at Hamptonne in Jersey.jpg|A colombier (dovecote) in Jersey
Jersey
Jersey, officially the Bailiwick of Jersey is a British Crown Dependency off the coast of Normandy, France. As well as the island of Jersey itself, the bailiwick includes two groups of small islands that are no longer permanently inhabited, the Minquiers and Écréhous, and the Pierres de Lecq and...
, Channel Islands
Channel Islands
The Channel Islands are an archipelago of British Crown Dependencies in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two separate bailiwicks: the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey...
Image:Pigeontower.jpg|The Pigeon Tower at Rivington
Rivington
Rivington is a small village and civil parish of the Borough of Chorley, Lancashire, England, occupying . It is about southeast of Chorley and about northwest of Bolton. Rivington is situated on the fringe of the West Pennine Moors, at the foot of Rivington Pike...
on the West Pennine Moors
West Pennine Moors
The West Pennine Moors cover an area of approximately of moorland and reservoirs in Lancashire and Greater Manchester, England.The West Pennine Moors are separated from the main Pennine range by the Irwell Valley. The moorland includes Withnell, Anglezarke and Rivington Moors in the extreme west,...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
Image:Newark Castle doocot int.jpg|Looking up inside the doocot at Newark Castle
Newark Castle, Port Glasgow
Newark Castle is a well-preserved castle sited on the south shore of the estuary of the River Clyde in Port Glasgow, Inverclyde, Scotland, where the firth gradually narrows from the Firth of Clyde and navigation upriver is made difficult by shifting sandbanks...
Image:Newark Castle doocot.jpg|At Newark Castle, Port Glasgow, a corner tower of the outer defensive wall was converted to a doocot in 1597 when the wall was demolished.
Image:Dovecote St Andrews.jpg|Doocot at St Andrews
St Andrews
St Andrews is a university town and former royal burgh on the east coast of Fife in Scotland. The town is named after Saint Andrew the Apostle.St Andrews has a population of 16,680, making this the fifth largest settlement in Fife....
, restored by the St. Andrews Preservation Trust
Image:Glasgow doocot Firrhill 1.jpg|Urban doocot in Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
, Scotland
Image:Glasgow doocot Partick 1.jpg|Urban doocot in Glasgow, Scotland
Image:Old-dovecot.jpg|A (derelict) dovecot in Zemst
Zemst
Zemst is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Flemish Brabant. The municipality comprises the villages of Elewijt, Eppegem, Hofstade, Weerde, Laar and Zemst proper. On January 1, 2006 Zemst had a total population of 21,327...
, Belgium
Image:Limburg_Brothers.jpg|The month of February in the Limburg Brothers' Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry
Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry
The Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry or simply the Très Riches Heures is a richly decorated book of hours commissioned by John, Duke of Berry, around 1410...
, a painting dated 1416, showing a dovecote
Image:Dove house.jpg|Small dovecote at the Lost Gardens of Heligan
Lost Gardens of Heligan
The Lost Gardens of Heligan, near Mevagissey in Cornwall, are one of the most popular botanical gardens in the UK. The style of the gardens is typical of the nineteenth century Gardenesque style, with areas of different character and in different design styles.The gardens were created by members of...
Image:The_Dovecote.jpg|
Long Wittenham
Long Wittenham is a village and civil parish north of Didcot, and southeast of Abingdon. It was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred it from Berkshire to Oxfordshire, and from the former Wallingford Rural District to the new district of South Oxfordshire.It used to be...
.
A dovecote or dovecot (Scots
Scots language
Scots is the Germanic language variety spoken in Lowland Scotland and parts of Ulster . It is sometimes called Lowland Scots to distinguish it from Scottish Gaelic, the Celtic language variety spoken in most of the western Highlands and in the Hebrides.Since there are no universally accepted...
: Doocot) is a structure intended to house pigeons or dove
Dove
Pigeons and doves constitute the bird family Columbidae within the order Columbiformes, which include some 300 species of near passerines. In general terms "dove" and "pigeon" are used somewhat interchangeably...
s. Dovecotes may be square or circular free-standing structures or built into the end of a house or barn. They generally contain pigeonhole
Pigeonhole
Pigeonhole may refer to:*Pigeonholes, nesting spaces formed in a dovecote *Pigeonhole, one of the boxes in a pigeon coop...
s for the birds to nest. Pigeons and doves were an important food source historically in Western Europe and were kept for their eggs, flesh, and dung. In Scotland the tradition is continued in modern urban areas.
History and geography
In some cultures, particularly Medieval EuropeEurope
Europe is, by convention, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally 'divided' from Asia to its east by the watershed divides of the Ural and Caucasus Mountains, the Ural River, the Caspian and Black Seas, and the waterways connecting...
, the possession of a dovecote was a symbol of status and power and was consequently regulated by law. Only nobles had this special privilege known as droit de colombier. Many ancient manors
Manorialism
Manorialism, an essential element of feudal society, was the organizing principle of rural economy that originated in the villa system of the Late Roman Empire, was widely practiced in medieval western and parts of central Europe, and was slowly replaced by the advent of a money-based market...
in France and the United Kingdom
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
have a dovecote (still standing or in ruins) in one section of the manorial enclosure or in nearby fields. Examples include Château de Kerjean in Brittany, France, Houchin
Houchin
Houchin is a commune in the Pas-de-Calais department in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region of France.-Geography:A farming village, situated some south of Béthune near the junction of the D72 and the D171 roads.-Population:-Places of interest:...
, France, Bodysgallen Hall
Bodysgallen Hall
Bodysgallen Hall is a manor house in Conwy county borough, north Wales, near the village of Llanrhos. Since 2008 the house has been owned by The National Trust. It is a grade I listed building, and is currently used as a hotel. This listed historical building derives primarily from the 17th...
in Wales
Wales
Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...
, and Muchalls Castle
Muchalls Castle
Muchalls Castle stands overlooking the North Sea in the countryside of Kincardine and Mearns, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. The lower course is a well preserved double groined 13th century towerhouse structure, built by the Frasers of Muchalls. Upon this structure, the 17th century castle was begun by...
and Newark Castle
Newark Castle, Port Glasgow
Newark Castle is a well-preserved castle sited on the south shore of the estuary of the River Clyde in Port Glasgow, Inverclyde, Scotland, where the firth gradually narrows from the Firth of Clyde and navigation upriver is made difficult by shifting sandbanks...
in Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
.
The oldest dovecotes are thought to have been the fortified dovecotes of Upper Egypt, and the domed dovecotes of Iran. In the dry regions, the droppings were in great demand and were collected on uniformly cleaned braids.
Columbaria in Ancient Rome
The presence of dovecotes is not noted in France before the Roman invasion of Gaul by Caesar. The pigeon farm was then a passion in Rome: the Roman, generally round, columbarium had its interior covered with a white coating of marble powder. Varro, ColumellaColumella
Lucius Junius Moderatus Columella is the most important writer on agriculture of the Roman empire. Little is known of his life. He was probably born in Gades , possibly of Roman parents. After a career in the army , he took up farming...
and Pliny the Elder
Pliny the Elder
Gaius Plinius Secundus , better known as Pliny the Elder, was a Roman author, naturalist, and natural philosopher, as well as naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and personal friend of the emperor Vespasian...
wrote works on pigeon farms and dovecote construction. In the city of Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...
in the time of the Republic and the Empire the internal design of the banks of pigeonholes was adapted for the purpose of disposing of cremated ashes after death: these columbaria
Columbarium
A columbarium is a place for the respectful and usually public storage of cinerary urns . The term comes from the Latin columba and originally referred to compartmentalized housing for doves and pigeons .The Columbarium of Pomponius Hylas is a particularly fine ancient Roman example, rich in...
were generally constructed underground.
Dovecotes of France
The French word for dovecote is pigeonnier or colombier. In some French provinces, especially NormandyNormandy
Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...
, France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, the dovecotes were built of wood in a very stylized way. Stone was the other popular building material for these old dovecotes. These stone structures were usually built in circular, square and occasionally octagonal form. Some of the medieval French abbeys had very large stone dovecotes on their grounds.
In Brittany
Brittany
Brittany is a cultural and administrative region in the north-west of France. Previously a kingdom and then a duchy, Brittany was united to the Kingdom of France in 1532 as a province. Brittany has also been referred to as Less, Lesser or Little Britain...
the dovecote was sometimes built directly into the upper walls of the farmhouse or manor-house. In rare cases, it was built into the upper gallery of the lookout tower (for example at the Toul-an-Gollet manor in Plesidy, Brittany). Dovecotes of this type are called tour-fuie in French.
Even some of the larger château-forts such as the Château de Suscinio
Château de Suscinio
The Château de Suscinio or de Susinio is a French castle, built in the late Middle Ages, to be the residence of the Dukes of Brittany. It is located near the town of Sarzeau in the département of Morbihan, near the coast of the Atlantic ocean...
in Morbihan, still have a complete dovecote standing on the grounds, outside the moat and walls of the castle.
Colombiers (or pigeonniers) in mediæval France
In France, it was called a colombier or fuie from the 13th century onwards and pigeonnier until the 19th century.In the Middle Ages, particularly in France, the possession of a colombier à pied (dovecote on the ground accessible by foot), constructed separately from the corps de logis of the manor-house (having boulins from the top down), was a privilege of the seigneurial lord. He was granted permission by his overlord to build a dovecote or two on his estate lands. For the other constructions, the dovecote rights (droit de colombier) varied according to the provinces. They had to be in proportion to the importance of the property, placed in a floor above a henhouse, a kennel, a bread oven, even a wine cellar. Generally the aviaries were integrated into a stable, a barn or a shed, and were permitted to use no more than 2.5 hectares of arable land.
Although they produced an excellent fertilizer (known as colombine), the lord's pigeons were often seen as a nuisance by the nearby peasant farmers, in particular at the time of sowing of new crops. In numerous regions (in France) where the right to possess a dovecote was reserved solely for the nobility (Brittany, Normandy, etc.), the complaint rolls very frequently recorded formal requests for the suppression of this privilege and a law for its abolition, which was finally ratified on 4 August 1789 in France.
Dovecotes of Italy
Dovecotes were included in several of the villa designs of Andrea PalladioAndrea Palladio
Andrea Palladio was an architect active in the Republic of Venice. Palladio, influenced by Roman and Greek architecture, primarily by Vitruvius, is widely considered the most influential individual in the history of Western architecture...
. As an integral part of the World Heritage Site
World Heritage Site
A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...
"Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto
Palladian Villas of the Veneto
The City of Vicenza and the Palladian Villas of the Veneto is a World Heritage Site protecting a cluster of works by the architect Andrea Palladio. UNESCO inscribed the site on the World Heritage List in 1994. At first the site was called "Vicenza, City of Palladio" and only buildings in the...
", dovecotes such as those at Villa Barbaro
Villa Barbaro
Villa Barbaro, also known as the Villa di Maser, is a large villa at Maser in the Veneto region of northern Italy. It was designed and built by the Italian architect Andrea Palladio, with frescos by Paolo Veronese and sculptures by Alessandro Vittoria for Daniele Barbaro, Patriarch of Aquileia...
enjoy a high level of protection.
Dovecotes of the Netherlands and Belgium
Belgium
Belgium , officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a federal state in Western Europe. It is a founding member of the European Union and hosts the EU's headquarters, and those of several other major international organisations such as NATO.Belgium is also a member of, or affiliated to, many...
are mostly associated with pigeon racing
Pigeon racing
Pigeon racing is the sport of releasing specially trained racing pigeons, which then return to their homes over a carefully measured distance...
. They have special features such as trap doors which allow pigeons to fly in, but not out. The Belgian-Dutch word for dovecote is "duivekot".
Dovecotes of Transylvania
The SzekelySzékely
The Székelys or Székely , sometimes also referred to as Szeklers , are a subgroup of the Hungarian people living mostly in the Székely Land, an ethno-cultural region in eastern Transylvania, Romania...
people of Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
incorporate a dovecote into the design of their famous gates. These intricately carved wooden structures feature a large arch with a slatted door, which is meant to admit drivers of carriages and wagons (although today the visitors are probably driving cars and trucks), and smaller arch with a similar door for pedestrians. Across the top of the gate is a dovecote with 6-12 or more pigeonholes and a roof of wooden shingles or tiles.
Dovecotes of the United Kingdom
The Romans may have introduced dovecotes or columbaria to Britain since pigeon holes have been found in Roman ruins at CaerwentCaerwent
Caerwent is a village and community in Monmouthshire, Wales. It is located about five miles west of Chepstow and eleven miles east of Newport, and was founded by the Romans as the market town of Venta Silurum, an important settlement of the Brythonic Silures tribe. The modern village is built...
. However it is believed that doves were not commonly kept there until after the Norman invasion. The earliest use of dovecotes in Britain may have been in the Roman period—although no certain examples are known of that date. The traditional view, however, is that dovecotes were introduced by the Normans. The earliest known examples of dove-keeping occur in Norman castles of the 12th century (for example, at Rochester Castle, Kent, where nest-holes can be seen in the keep), and documentary references also begin in the 12th century. The earliest surviving, definitely-dated free-standing dovecote in this country was built in 1326 at Garway in Herefordshire. The Welsh name colomendy has itself become a place name (similarly in Cornwall:colomen & ty = dove house).
Scotland
Early purpose-built doocots in Scotland are of a "beehive" shape, circular in plan and tapering up to a domed roof with a circular opening at the top. In the late 16th century they were superseded by the "lectern
Lectern
A lectern is a reading desk with a slanted top, usually placed on a stand or affixed to some other form of support, on which documents or books are placed as support for reading aloud, as in a scripture reading, lecture, or sermon...
" type, rectangular with a monopitch roof sloping fairly steeply in a suitable direction. Phantassie Doocot is an unusual example of the beehive type topped with a monopitch roof, and Finavon
Finavon Castle
Finavon Castle lies on the River South Esk, about a quarter of a mile south of Milton of Finavon village and five miles to the north-east of Forfar in Angus, Scotland...
Doocot of the lectern type is the largest doocot in Scotland, with 2,400 nesting boxes. Doocots were built well into the 18th century in increasingly decorative forms, then the need for them died out though some continued to be incorporated into farm buildings as ornamental features. However the 20th century saw a revival of doocot construction by pigeon fanciers
Pigeon keeping
Pigeon keeping is the art and science of breeding domestic pigeons. People have practiced pigeon keeping for about 10,000 years in almost every part of the world...
, and dramatic towers clad in black or green painted corrugated iron can still be found on wasteland near housing estates in Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
and Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Edinburgh is the capital city of Scotland, the second largest city in Scotland, and the eighth most populous in the United Kingdom. The City of Edinburgh Council governs one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas. The council area includes urban Edinburgh and a rural area...
.
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Milton of Campsie
Milton of Campsie is a small village situated in East Dunbartonshire, Scotland roughly 10 miles north of Glasgow. Nestling at the foot of the Campsie Fells, it is neighboured by Kirkintilloch and Lennoxtown...
with a dovecot in the background.Stoddart, John (1800), Remarks on local Scenery and Manners in Scotland. London: William Miller
William Miller (British publisher)
William Richard Beckford Miller was one of the leading English publishers of the early 19th century.-Origins and early life:William Miller was born at Bungay, Suffolk, on 25 March 1769, the son of Thomas Miller , a bookseller and antiquarian, and Sally Kingsbury of Waveney House, Bungay...
;facing p. 206
File:Abbaye_Saint-Vincent_(Le_Mans)_Facade_Sud.jpg|Dovecote at the Abbaye Saint-Vincent in Le Mans, France
File:Dovecote_HHPP_purfleet.JPG|The Dovecote at High House Purfleet
High House Purfleet
High House is the collective name for a group of historic buildings in Purfleet, Thurrock, Essex , which was used as a farm for hundreds of years, with a Grade II listed house and barn, but with the addition of one of the best dovecotes in Southern England, which is a Scheduled Ancient Monument...
, Essex
Dovecotes of North America
In the U.S. an alternative English name for dovecotes is derived from the French: pigeonaire. This word is more common than "dovecote" in Louisiana and other areas with heavy Francophonic heritage.Québec City
Quebec City
Quebec , also Québec, Quebec City or Québec City is the capital of the Canadian province of Quebec and is located within the Capitale-Nationale region. It is the second most populous city in Quebec after Montreal, which is about to the southwest...
, Canada, has a pigeonnier which stands in a square in Old Québec; the Pigeonnier is also the name of the square itself where street artists present their shows.
Architecture
Their location is chosen away from large trees that can house raptors and shielded from prevailing winds and their construction obeys a few safety rules: tight access doors and smooth walls with a protruding band of stones (or other smooth surface) to prohibit the entry of climbing predators (martens, weasels…). The exterior facade was, if necessary, only evenly coated by a horizontal band, in order to prevent their ascent.The dovecote materials can be very varied and shape and dimension extremely diverse:
- the square dovecote with quadruple vaulting: built before the fifteenth century (Roquetaillade Castle, Bordeaux) or Saint-Trojan near Cognac)
- the cylindrical tower: fourteenth century to the sixteenth century, it is covered with curved tiles, flat tiles, stone lauzes roofing and occasionally with a dome of bricks. A window or skylight is the only opening.
- the dovecote on stone or wooden pillars, cylindrical, hexagonal or square;
- the hexagonal dovecote (like the dovecotes of the Royal Mail at Sauzé-Vaussais);
- the square dovecote with flat roof tiles in the seventeenth century and a slate roof in the eighteenth century;
- the lean-to structure against the sides of buildings.
Inside a dovecote could be virtually empty (boulins being located in the walls from bottom to top), the interior reduced to only the structure of a rotating ladder, or "potence", allowing the collection of eggs or squabs and maintenance.
Gallery
Image:Colombier at Hamptonne in Jersey.jpg|A colombier (dovecote) in Jersey
Jersey
Jersey, officially the Bailiwick of Jersey is a British Crown Dependency off the coast of Normandy, France. As well as the island of Jersey itself, the bailiwick includes two groups of small islands that are no longer permanently inhabited, the Minquiers and Écréhous, and the Pierres de Lecq and...
, Channel Islands
Channel Islands
The Channel Islands are an archipelago of British Crown Dependencies in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two separate bailiwicks: the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey...
Image:Pigeontower.jpg|The Pigeon Tower at Rivington
Rivington
Rivington is a small village and civil parish of the Borough of Chorley, Lancashire, England, occupying . It is about southeast of Chorley and about northwest of Bolton. Rivington is situated on the fringe of the West Pennine Moors, at the foot of Rivington Pike...
on the West Pennine Moors
West Pennine Moors
The West Pennine Moors cover an area of approximately of moorland and reservoirs in Lancashire and Greater Manchester, England.The West Pennine Moors are separated from the main Pennine range by the Irwell Valley. The moorland includes Withnell, Anglezarke and Rivington Moors in the extreme west,...
, England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
Image:Newark Castle doocot int.jpg|Looking up inside the doocot at Newark Castle
Newark Castle, Port Glasgow
Newark Castle is a well-preserved castle sited on the south shore of the estuary of the River Clyde in Port Glasgow, Inverclyde, Scotland, where the firth gradually narrows from the Firth of Clyde and navigation upriver is made difficult by shifting sandbanks...
Image:Newark Castle doocot.jpg|At Newark Castle, Port Glasgow, a corner tower of the outer defensive wall was converted to a doocot in 1597 when the wall was demolished.
Image:Dovecote St Andrews.jpg|Doocot at St Andrews
St Andrews
St Andrews is a university town and former royal burgh on the east coast of Fife in Scotland. The town is named after Saint Andrew the Apostle.St Andrews has a population of 16,680, making this the fifth largest settlement in Fife....
, restored by the St. Andrews Preservation Trust
Image:Glasgow doocot Firrhill 1.jpg|Urban doocot in Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
, Scotland
Image:Glasgow doocot Partick 1.jpg|Urban doocot in Glasgow, Scotland
Image:Old-dovecot.jpg|A (derelict) dovecot in Zemst
Zemst
Zemst is a municipality located in the Belgian province of Flemish Brabant. The municipality comprises the villages of Elewijt, Eppegem, Hofstade, Weerde, Laar and Zemst proper. On January 1, 2006 Zemst had a total population of 21,327...
, Belgium
Image:Limburg_Brothers.jpg|The month of February in the Limburg Brothers' Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry
Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry
The Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry or simply the Très Riches Heures is a richly decorated book of hours commissioned by John, Duke of Berry, around 1410...
, a painting dated 1416, showing a dovecote
Image:Dove house.jpg|Small dovecote at the Lost Gardens of Heligan
Lost Gardens of Heligan
The Lost Gardens of Heligan, near Mevagissey in Cornwall, are one of the most popular botanical gardens in the UK. The style of the gardens is typical of the nineteenth century Gardenesque style, with areas of different character and in different design styles.The gardens were created by members of...
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Long Wittenham
Long Wittenham is a village and civil parish north of Didcot, and southeast of Abingdon. It was part of Berkshire until the 1974 boundary changes transferred it from Berkshire to Oxfordshire, and from the former Wallingford Rural District to the new district of South Oxfordshire.It used to be...
.Robert Stephenson (1986), Conversion of Listed 16th Century Dovecote.
Image:Dovecote hudson valley.jpg|Hudson Valley dovecote in Saugerties
Saugerties
Saugerties can refer to the following places in Ulster County, New York:* Saugerties , New York* Saugerties , New York...
, New York
File:Dovecote_by_Oscar_Niemeyer_in_Brasília.jpg|Modern dovecote designed by Oscar Niemeyer
Oscar Niemeyer
Oscar Ribeiro de Almeida Niemeyer Soares Filho is a Brazilian architect specializing in international modern architecture...
and located on the Praça dos Três Poderes
Praça dos Três Poderes
Praça dos Três Poderes is a plaza in Brasília, the capital of Brazil. The name is derived from the presence of the three governmental powers around the plaza: the Executive, represented by the Palácio do Planalto ; the Legislative represented by the Congresso Nacional ; and the Judiciary,...
in Brasília
Brasília
Brasília is the capital city of Brazil. The name is commonly spelled Brasilia in English. The city and its District are located in the Central-West region of the country, along a plateau known as Planalto Central. It has a population of about 2,557,000 as of the 2008 IBGE estimate, making it the...
See also
- CulverhouseCulverhouseCulverhouse is an English topographical surname originally meaning someone who tended or lived near a dovecote, which were very common on English medieval period estates.-People with the surname Culverhouse:*Gay Culverhouse, American academic administrator...
old English for dovecote - CunninghamheadCunninghamhead EstateThe Cunninghamhead Estate is in the 21st century mainly a residential caravan park with two private residences near Irvine, Scotland. It was once a private estate, owned by a sequence of recorded families since around 1418. The Mansion House, one of Britain's lost houses, was built in 1747; it was...
An example of a small doocot - Museum of Scottish Country Life An example of a doocot on a cart shed
- Pigeon keepingPigeon keepingPigeon keeping is the art and science of breeding domestic pigeons. People have practiced pigeon keeping for about 10,000 years in almost every part of the world...
- Pigeon racingPigeon racingPigeon racing is the sport of releasing specially trained racing pigeons, which then return to their homes over a carefully measured distance...
More on the sport - Squab (food)Squab (food)In culinary terminology, squab is a young domestic pigeon or its meat. The meat is widely described as tasting like dark chicken. The term is probably of Scandinavian origin; the Swedish word skvabb means "loose, fat flesh". It formerly applied to all dove and pigeon species, such as the Wood...
The meat from birds kept in a dovecote
Further reading and external links
- Cooke, Arthur (1920) A Book of Dovecotes London: T. N. Foulis
- Emery, Gordon Curious Clwyd ISBN 1-872265-99-5 (includes a list of dovecotes in Flintshire, Denbighshire and Wrexham with many photo examples)
- Emery, Gordon (1996) Curious Clwyd; 2 ISBN 1-872265-97-9
- The Pigeon Cote; compiled by John Verburg / Includes an annotated edition of A Book of Dovecotes and much more information on British dovecotes
- Castels of the Fields pigeon towers near Isfahan