Westquarter Dovecot

In the middle of a housing estate in Westquarter, east of Falkirk, stands a remarkably well preserved lectern dovecot, named for its single sloping roof shaped like a book rest. It was built to house hundreds of pairs of pigeons for the laird's table, a valuable food in winter, with rows of stone nest boxes inside. Over the door a panel carries the arms of Sir William and Dame Helenore Livingstone and the date 1647, but the dovecot's style suggests it was built in the 1700s, reusing their panel. Look for the projecting stone perching course, meant to stop rats climbing up and to give the birds somewhere to preen, the flight holes in the south-facing slate roof, the crow-stepped gables and the scalloped parapet. The Livingstones' house was replaced by a Victorian mansion that was demolished in the 1930s, when the county council built a model village here for mining families. The dovecot is locked and seen from outside its hedged enclosure; park on Dovecot Road.