But, anything good/worth anything on this tower was stripped from it long ago.
There is some sort of arch on one face fairly low down which was blocked up at some point, perhaps for defensive reasons to make it harder for people to get in. The needs of such structures changing back and forth with the peacefulness of the times or lack thereof.
The tower interior featured at least four wall niches for storage (called an ambry. There may have been more along the fourth wall, which has entirely collapsed. They probably didn't have a lot of furniture or other niceties in this tower. I also saw NO evidence of a fireplace, but this could have been along the missing wall.
The ground in and around the tower is overgrown. It looks like there was a ground floor door mostly covered now by brush, which went into the basement/ground level. I saw some hints in the stonework that this level was stone vaulted, but none of the vaulting remains intact, just the ragged edges. There was also a turret staircase in the corner, which you can see by curved masonry. It may not have been communicant with the ground floor. Given some of the other defensive stuff, I'm guessing not.
With some towers, you get hints that they were once wood paneled or plastered and were nicer/more cheerful to live in than their current grey stone ruinous appearance would imply. Here it is the reverse. Nether Horsbrugh was about as cheap and miserable a place to live as it got when it came to tower house accommodation.
Nether Horsbrugh earns pluses for having a water supply running right alongside the castle and salmon to eat from the Tweed a stone's throw away, but this wasn't the home of an even moderately wealthy laird.
Fast forward four centuries and the converted mill next door was one of the nicest places I've stayed this trip, with underfloor heating, a big bathtub and full sized shower and gigabit speed internet. Also, walking by Shetland ponies every day was nice.
Lets talk about the name for a second. The modern signs all say Nether Horsburgh, which means something like Under/Below Horsburgh. And a burgh is a town/village, right? In this case not. The people who lived here were named Horsbrugh, which has a different derivation and it's just been mutated in modern times.
You can see this in the spelling of some of the graves in the cemetery of Old Saint Andrews in Peebles, nearby.
The Saint Andrews in Peebles has a restored 12th century tower, which along with one vine covered wall is all that remains of the church which stood here. It was destroyed by the English in the 16th century. The burial yard has continued to be used, though and has a lot of interesting graves.
They had some interesting table style graves of a sort I'd never seen before, which were in part similar to effigy graves. A few stylistically similar ones had dates in the early 1700's. Haven't really seen this sort elsewhere. Maybe a short lived fad?
There were some others which didn't seem to have much in the way of text on them, but which had surfaces where text could be inscribed. Possible that these had been sold/prepared, but never used?
Anyways, back to the Horsbrugh and peel towers. There is another one nearby, which is just called Horsbrugh Castle. It's atop a steep hill in the middle of the valley overlooking the river. The hill is steep enough to be a serious defense on several sides. Natually, I didn't approach it from the gradual slope, but came at it from a path along the river.
This was the best way to approach the castle, for me, though, as it was the only public footpath (going through a golf course). The alternative was walking along a busy A road with no shoulder. The hill is at least as steep as that of some mottes I've visited. Again, as a peel tower, this placement was careful and was positioned for sight-lines down the valley and maximizing defensive advantage.
Horsbrugh Castle was a bit more substantial than it's Nether cousin and was of a L plan design, though the L was pretty clipped and may not have provided much more than a more generous stairwell.
The walls of this one were also pretty thin, though at least it seems like they used an adequate amount of mortar on surfaces, though some of that may be more modern application to hold the ruins together. There is one corner that seems to have been propped up with modern masonry to prevent further deterioration.
