The Scottish tower or fortified house.

A tower house is a particular type of stone structure, built for defensive purposes as well as habitation. Such buildings were constructed in the wilder parts of Great Britain, particularly in Scotland, and throughout Ireland, beginning in the High Middle Ages and continuing at least up to the 17th century. The remains of such structures are dotted around the Irish and Scottish countryside, with a particular concentration in the Scottish Borders where they include peel towers and bastle houses. Some are still intact and even inhabited today, while others stand as ruined shells.

Tower houses are often called castles, and despite their characteristic compact footprint size, they are formidable habitations and there is no clear distinction between a castle and a tower house. In Scotland a classification system has been widely accepted based on ground plan, such as the L Plan Castle style, one example being the original layout (prior to enlargement) of Muchalls Castle in Scotland.

The few surviving round Scottish Iron Age towers known as brochs are often compared to tower houses, having mural passages and a base-batter, (a thickening of the wall that slopes obliquely, intended to prevent the use of a battering ram) although the entrances to Brochs are far less ostentatious.

In Ireland, there are well over 2,000 tower houses extant and some estimate that there were as many as 8,000 built during the Middle Ages. The construction of the majority of tower houses is thought to have commenced in the early fifteenth century AD and lasted until the mid-seventeenth century. After 1580 many lords built fortified houses and strong houses although tower houses continued to be built until the guns of the Cromwellian rendered such private defences more or less obsolete. It is possible that many were built after King Henry VI of England introduced a building subsidy of £10 in 1429 to every man in the Pale who wished to build a castle within 10 years, Ireland being under English control at the time (Statute Rolls of the Parliament of Ireland, Reign of Henry VI, pp 33-5) although recent studies have undermined the significance of this grant, demonstrating that there were many similar grants at different times and in different areas. Tower Houses in Ireland were built mainly by the Catholic Anglo-Irish but also by the Gaelic Irish and more recent Protestant and Presbyterian settlers. Many of these structures were positioned within sight of each other and a system of visual communication is said to have been established between them, based on line of sight from the uppermost levels, although this may simply be a result of their high density. County Kilkenny has several examples of this arrangement such as Ballyshawnmore and Neigham. County Clare, although outside English control, is known to have had approximately 230 tower houses in the 17th century, some of which were later surveyed by the notable Irish antiquarian Thomas Johnson Westropp in the 1890s. The Irish tower house was used for both defensive and residential reasons, with many chiefly families building tower houses during the 15th and 16th centuries on their demesne lands in order to assert status and provide a residence for the senior lineage of the family.

Wider perspectives

While tower houses are appropriately attributed to the British Isles as their main occurrence, examples from elsewhere in Europe, the Middle East and the New World exist, usually in areas which had a somewhat similar social structure. For example, the Yemeni city of Shibam had hundreds of tower houses which were the tallest in the world. There are also, for instance, numerous examples of tower houses in Georgia in the Caucasus, where there was a clan-like social structure (surviving here into the 19th or even 20th century) in a country where fierce competition over limited natural resources, led to chronic feuding between neighbours. One theory suggests that private tower like structures proliferate in areas where central authority is weak, leading to a need for a status symbol incorporating private defences against small scale attacks.

Tower houses can also be found in the Mani peninsula in southern Greece; again an area of scarce resources, poverty, spectacular feuding, long lived vendettas, and a history of lawlessness and independence from central authority. A very good description can be found in the book Mani by Patrick Leigh-Fermor.

Most notable in the New World might be considered a focal element of the Mesa Verde Anasazi ruin in Colorado, USA. There is a prominent structure at that site which is in fact called the "tower house" and has the general appearance characteristics of its British Isles counterparts. This four story building was constructed of adobe bricks circa 1350 AD, and its rather well preserved ruins are nestled within a cliff overhang; moreover, other accounts date this ruin somewhat earlier. The towers of the ancient pueblo people are, however, both of smaller ground plan than Old World tower houses, and are generally only parts of complexes housing communities, rather than isolated structures housing an individual family and their retainers, as in Europe.

After initial European tower houses appearing in Ireland, Scotland and England during the High Middle Ages, Toy traces the appearance in other parts of western Europe as early as the late 14th century, especially in parts of France and Italy.

The Fortified House in Scotland is a five-volume book by the Scottish author Nigel Tranter.

Written between 1962 and 1970, it covers almost seven hundred buildings in Scotland which fall under the general description of "fortalices, lesser castles, peel towers, keeps and defensible lairds' houses". As such castles are included (although not the largest examples like Edinburgh or Stirling castles), as well as many smaller, semi-ruinous tower houses. Tranter illustrated each one with pen and ink sketches.

The work was an expansion of The Fortalices and Early Mansions of Southern Scotland 1400-1650, which Tranter had written in the 1930s. However, much of the updated work has itself been superseded or has fallen out of date, and the author never claimed the work to be scholarly. However original first editions are very collectable, as are complete sets. The first four original volumes were published by Oliver & Boyd, with the fifth by W. & R. Chambers. The work was reprinted in 1977 and 1986 by James Thin, under their imprint of The Mercat Press. Tranter made some revisions to the material for the reprints, but they were not described as revised or second editions. The additional entries which had appeared in the original fifth volume were also redistributed across their appropriate volumes for the reprints.

Volumes

* Volume 1: South East Scotland (1962)

o covering West Lothian, Midlothian, East Lothian, Peeblesshire, Roxburghshire, Selkirkshire and Berwickshire

* Volume 2: Central Scotland (1963)

o covering Stirlingshire, Fife, Kinross-shire, Perthshire and Clackmannanshire

* Volume 3: South West Scotland (1965)

o covering Renfrewshire, Lanarkshire, Ayrshire, Wigtownshire, Kirkcudbrightshire and Dumfriesshire

* Volume 4: Aberdeenshire, Angus and Kincardineshire (1966)

* Volume 5: North and West Scotland and Miscellaneous (1970)

o covering Inverness-shire, Nairnshire, Banffshire, Moray, Caithness, Sutherland, Ross and Cromarty, Argyllshire, Buteshire, Dunbartonshire, Orkney and Shetland and additional structures not included in earlier volumes.

Peel towers (also spelt pele) are small fortified keeps or tower houses, built along the English and Scottish Borders, intended as watch towers where signal fires could be lit by the garrison to warn of approaching danger. By an Act of Parliament in 1455 each of these towers was required to have an iron basket on its summit and a smoke or fire signal, for day or night use, ready at hand.

Preston Pele tower, Northumberland

A line of these towers was built in the 1430s across the Tweed valley from Berwick to its source, as a response to the dangers of invasion from the Marches. Others were built in Cumberland, Westmorland and Northumberland, and as far south as Lancashire, in response to the threat of attack from the Scots and the Border Reivers of both nationalities ( remembering stories of Armstrong's last stand)

Apart from their primary purpose as a warning system, these towers were the homes of the Lairds and landlords of the area, who dwelt in them with their families and retainers, while their followers lived in simple huts outside the walls. The towers also provide a refuge so that, when cross-border raiding parties arrived, the whole population of a village could take to the tower and wait for the marauders to depart.

In the upper Tweed valley, going downstream from its source, they were as follows: Fruid, Hawkshaw, Oliver, Polmood, Kingledoors, Mossfennan, Wrae Tower, Quarter, Stanhope, Drumelzier, Tinnies, Dreva, Stobo, Dawyck, Easter Happrew, Lyne, Barnes, Caverhill, Neidpath, Peebles, Horsburgh, Nether Horsburgh, Cardrona, etc.

Embleton Tower (formerly Embleton Vicarage), Late 19th Century

Peel towers are not usually found in larger places which have a castle, but in smaller settlements. They are often associated with a church: for example Embleton Tower in Embleton, Northumberland is a fine example of a so-called vicar's pele and the one at Hulne Priory is in the grounds of the priory. Hawkshaw, ancestral home of the Porteous family at Tweedsmuir in Peeblesshire, a peel tower dating from at least 1439, no longer stands but its site is marked by a cairn.

Nowadays some towers are derelict while others have been converted for use in peacetime; Embleton Tower is now part of the (former) vicarage and that on the Inner Farne is a home to bird wardens. The most obvious conversion needs will include access, which was originally difficult, and the provision of more and larger windows.

Bastle houses are found along the Anglo-Scottish border, in the areas formerly plagued by border Reivers. They are farmhouses, characterised by elaborate security measures against raids. Their name is said to derive from the French word "bastille."

The characteristics of the classic bastle house are extremely thick stone walls (1 meter or so), with the ground floor devoted to stable-space for the most valuable animals, and usually a stone vault between it and the first floor. The family's living quarters were on the floor above the ground, and during the times prior to the suppression of the reivers, were only reachable by a ladder which was pulled up from the inside at night. The only windows were narrow arrow slits. The roofs were usually made of stone slate to improve the bastle's fire-resistance. Bastle houses have many characteristics in common with military blockhouses, the main difference being that a bastle was intended primarily as a family dwelling, instead of a pure fortification. Many bastle houses survive today; their construction ensured that they would last a very long time. They may be seen on both sides of the Anglo-Scottish Border.

An L-plan castle is a castle or towerhouse in the shape of an L, typically built in the 13th to the 17th century. This design is found quite frequently in Scotland, but is also seen in England, Ireland, Romania, Sardinia and other locations. The evolution of its design was an expansion of the blockhouse or simple square tower from the Early Middle Ages. As building techniques improved, it became possible to construct a larger building footprint and a more complex shape than the simple blockhouse tower. A more compelling motivation for the L plan was the ability to defend the entrance door by providing covering fire from the adjacent walls. This stratagem was particularly driven by the advent of cannon used by attackers.

It was common for the union of the two wings to have very thick wall construction to support a major defensive tower in the union area. For example, the stone walls of Muchalls Castle in Scotland are over 14 feet thick at the ground level. Built in the 13th century, these walls are thought to have supported a substantial defensive tower. A 17th century reconstruction consisted of a probably equally tall structure, but one suited toward 17th century living and whose upper story footprints mimicked the lower course.

Other examples of Scottish L-plan castles are Culzean Castle built in the late 16th century in Ayrshire; Dalhousie Castle built as a 15th century towerhouse near Dalkeith in the Lothian region; Dunnottar Castle a partially ruined castle perched on a cliff by the North Sea near Stonehaven; Erchless Castle, a 14th century Norman Castle in Inverness-shire; Fernie Castle constructed in the 16th century in Fife; and Neidpath Castle built by Clan Fraser in the 13th century near Peebles.

Irish L-plan castles include Balingarry Castle, which originated as a pre-Norman ringfort, but was modified as a high Middle Ages L-plan towerhouse; Balingarry Castle is located in the town of Balingarry. Gleninagh Castle is a 16th century towerhouse in a state of partial preservation. The L-plan design is also present in Rathmore Castle in County Meath.

As an eastern European example, one may look to Ilmov County, Romania to Herasti Castle, which includes elements of Italian Renaissance design. In Cagliari, Sardinia are two surviving structures known as the Pisan Towers. Each of these towers, as well as a third structure destroyed by English and Spanish naval power, is an L-plan design. The structures date from the year 1217 and are each 30 meters in height. The towers served as important lookouts over the sea and toward the island interior.

A keep is a strong central tower which is used as a dungeon or a fortress. Often, the keep is the most defended area of a castle, and as such may form the main habitation area, or contain important stores such as the armoury, food, and the main water well, which would ensure survival during a siege.

An earlier word for a keep, still used for some medieval monuments, especially in France, is donjon; a derivative word is dungeon. In Germany, this type of structure commonly is referred to as a bergfried.

Keeps exist in a remarkable variety of shapes and sizes. They may be of 'square' variety, generally found on the British Isles, cylindrical, octagonal, both regular and irregular polygonal forms, or a combination or several of these features. Effectively, some castles in fact, were no more than a keep and often these are referred to simply as tower houses.

Often early keeps were just square towers with very thick walls, scarcely more than a residential hall, such as Château de Langeais. This structure later developed into the more recognizable rectangular residential keep by the eleventh century.

The form and function of the keep changed with time and varied depending upon the region where it was built. As the keep was a defensive structure, the shaping trend changed to adapt to the developments in weapon technology. For example, the round or cylindrical keep was first introduced as a defence against the battering ram. A battering ram could cause severe damage to a side of a square tower, but merely would glance off the side of a rounded one. Also, a round tower is much harder to undermine successfully than a square one. Rounded towers also have the advantage of less "dead ground", or, areas not visible from the tower summit.

By the early twelfth century, cylindrical keeps had become popular and they remained prominent in France until the end of the medieval period (e.g. Montlhéry, Rouen). Variations on the rounded type began to appear at the same time. These included towers with triangular, prow-like projections (such as Château-Gaillard), polygonal keeps such as at Orford and Cardiff Castle, or "multi-lobed" keeps such as Clifford's Tower.

From the early thirteenth century onward many castles were designed without traditional keeps, instead the preferred plans for defensive structures were concentrated in the walls and towers of the enceinte, or in a gatehouse. Early examples may be seen at Château de Boulogne-sur-Mer, in Boulogne-sur-Mer and Bolingbroke Castle in Bolingbroke, Lincolnshire, and later, at The Bastille. In some castles the gatehouse took over the functions of the keep, serving as refuge, residence, and command post, such as at Harlech Castle.

The fourteenth century residential keep, Château de Largoët, in France

As nobles became more interested in grand halls and comfortable living quarters, the keep lost its domestic role. Although keeps continued to be used and built, there is evidence that many had a reduced role, demonstrated by the lack of residential amenities in the tower plans, such as latrines and chimneys.

In Western Europe, however, the defensible residential keep experienced a resurgence before the end of the medieval period, as towers were built to house nobles and their retinues securely, but at a very high level of comfort and luxury (e.g. Raglan Castle, Ashby de la Zouch Castle, Château de Vincennes, and Château de Largoët). This luxurious type was particularly popular in late medieval Scotland up until the 1600s (e.g. Craigievar Castle). Another word for this type of keep is the tower house.

Norman or Romanesque keep

An archetypical form for the keep in the British Isles is the Norman keep, so-called because they were built throughout England and Ireland by Norman nobles. Norman keeps usually have several distinguishing features in common and the type was very popular during the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Most have towers at each corner, which usually extend above the main keep to form watchtowers. In many cases spiral staircases were contained in or near these corner towers. Another common feature was the fore building, which contained the entryway to the keep, its most vulnerable point. This structure extended from the side of the keep and often, was approached by stairs, as the entryway usually was above ground level. Sometimes a drawbridge guarded the top of the stairs.

Inside, there usually is a central dividing wall that divides the interior in two parts. The living quarters for the noble or castellan of the castle were usually at the top of the keep, the great hall or halls were below the keep, and storage rooms were at the bottom of the structure. Keeps on this general plan may be seen throughout England and Ireland, with many examples in France as well, where they are known by the names donjon carré (a square keep) or donjon roman (a Romanesque keep). Examples include the Tower of London and Rochester Castle in England and, Domfront and Loches in France.

The Shell Keep at Gisors on the top of a motte

Shell-keep

A unique form of keep is the shell keep which essentially, is a masonry 'fossilization' of a palisade lining the top of a castle defensive mound or motte. In a shell keep a strong wall was built around the top of the motte, and the domestic buildings were built against it, leaving a round courtyard in the middle. These differ from most keeps in that they are not a tower, but a defensive enclosure, although their purpose as a last refuge, as well as living quarters, is similar to other keeps. Good examples are Restormel Castle in Cornwall and Gisors Castle in Normandy.

Famous keeps

The keep of Vincennes protected by its own isolated enceinte

One of the most famous keeps in Europe is the White Tower of the Tower of London, constructed by William the Conqueror in the aftermath of the Norman Conquest.

The cylindrical donjon (keep) of Rouen, shown above, is all that remains of the large city fortress where Joan of Arc was imprisoned during her trial for heresy.

Shown to the right is the tallest keep remaining in existence, the donjon of Château de Vincennes, which is located in a suburb of contemporary Paris. Previously this distinction was held by the donjon of Coucy in Picardy.

The Story of Earlshall Castle and its type.

Among the glorious buildings that have survived in Fife there are few to match the ancient fortalice of Earlshall standing superb in its dignity and ancient power in the Parish of Leuchars at the sea girt Eastern end of the peninsula of Fife, aloof to a march of science that has brought supersonic air machines incongruously to blast their way around its battlements.

Here is a proud house whose pride, once humbled, has been restored by lairds conscious of a great responsibility. Six centuries ago the estate on which the house now stands was part of the barony of King Robert III's brother the Duke of Albany who exercised baronial power in the peninsula as Earl of Fife, but a third part of the Leuchars Lordship was granted by Robert III in the fourteenth century to Thomas Monypenny, laird of Pitmilly in Fife, an estate given to his ancestor Ricardus Monypenny in 1211 by the prior of St. Andrews. A family of great antiquity the Monypennys carried a dolphin in their arms suggesting that they came originally from the Dauphiny in France, the province that in 1343 was transferred by Humbert Dauphin de Vennois to Philip VI de Valois on condition that the heir to the French crown should for all time be called the Dauphin and bear the dolphin of the Dauphiny in his arms.

William Monypenny, descendant of Thomas, fought in the service of Charles VII de Valois, Charles the Victorious, and was rewarded in 1444 with the lands of Congressault. As an ambassador from France sent to negotiate the marriage of Princess Eleanor of Scotland to the Dauphin he was styled Natif d 'Ecosse, courrier d 'conseillères of the King of France but despite being a natif d'Ecosse and granted a Scottish peerage by James II of Scotland his love of France over shadowed his interest in Leuchars estate known then as Leuchars-Monypenny and after his death his son exchanged the barony with Sir Alexander Bruce of the Airth family for the latter's lands of Escariot in France.

This was in 1495. Two years later Bruce's ownership was ratified by James IV when he bestowed upon Sir Alexander by charter "the lands of Earlishall and the Prusk'' but it was left to his son, also Sir Alexander Bruce, to build in 1546 the original Earlshall castle, the nucleus that has changed so little in four centuries.

To his great grandson, Sir William Bruce, goes the credit for restoring and developing the original castle into the magnificent fortified house that stands today despite the vicissitudes that intervened, credit shared by his second wife whose tombstone in Leuchars Kirk reads " D. Agnes Lyndesay, Lady to William Brvce of Erishall, who in her life was charitable to the poor, and profitable to that house, dyed 1635. ..." It was in fact her considerable fortune that went to the rich embellishment of Earlshall that has endured through the centuries.

Sir William died a year later, to be succeeded by his eldest son Andrew who married a great-grand-daughter of King James V, father of Mary Queen of Scots who rode from St. Andrews to hunt over the lands of Earls-hall. In 1664 he in turn was succeeded by his elder son Andrew then aged 34 and destined to go down in history as a savagely cruel persecutor of the Covenanters when he took a commission in the Royalist army under Claver-house. Commander of the force that massacred Richard Cameron and his band of devotees of pure Presbyterian-ism against the Episcopalian being forced on Scotland by Charles II, the band that inspired the formation of that great Scottish regiment, the Cameronian, Andrew Bruce is recorded as paying a guinea to hack off Cameron's head and hands with a dirk and selling them in Edinburgh for £500.

Ever one for the main chance this laird of Earlshall subsequently and publicly abjured allegiance to Bishops, to the Pope, to King James II, at just the right time to curry favour with King William III and he died at Earlshall in the odour, albeit synthetic, of sanctity though it is said that his restless ghost haunts the great tower.

His only son Robert who had no heir was the last of the line of Bruces of Earlshall and, through the marriage of one of his daughters, the estate passed to the Hen-dersons of Fordell in Fife and in 1852 Sir Robert Bruce Henderson, the last baronet of Fordell, sold Earlshall for £68,000 to Lieut. Colonel Samuel Long of Bromley Hill in Kent.

Then there became the vicissitudes, years of neglect, which reduced a superb example of the Scottish fortified house, to a near ruin, to a state of decay, enough to deter anyone from the immense task of restoration. Happily it did not deter Mr. R. W. R. Mackenzie of Stormontfield, Perthshire, who acquired the dilapidated property in 1891 and set about restoring it to the zenith of its former glory. His architect was none other than R. S., after-wards Sir Robert, Lorimer and Earlshall stands today as a unique memorial to his genius. The entrance to the courtyard, and so to the main door of the house set at the foot of the great tower, is the archway in the curtain wall bearing the arms of Sir William Bruce. The tall oval tower with its stone stairway spiralling through four floors to the battlemented roof is the primary external feature. Joined to this by the main body of the house with the great gallery and the other public rooms is another tower, cylindrical and lower, and the journey between the towers is quite an experience for the uninitiated visitor.

The ground floor, accessible from outside by a modest side entrance, set in a continuation of the curtain wall, contains a labyrinth of vaulted kitchen quarters and offices. Above are the lofty dining hall and drawing rooms divided by a tall screen whose period beauty disguises the fact that it was copied by Lorimer from a screen in Falkland Palace. Surmounting the entire building between the towers there stretches the most remarkable feature of a remarkable house, the great gallery fifty feet in length and famous for the riot of tempera heraldic paintings and proverbs dated 1617-1620 and covering the whole of the flat roof and its wide curved frieze.

As the arms of the Bruces and other great families, some connected with them by marriage, are interspersed with fanciful devices purporting to be the arms of, for example, Hector of Troy, David King of Israel, Julius Caesar, Judas MacCabeus and Charlemagne, and as there is further embellishment in the form of exotic animals, it is thought that intentional humour played a part in the whole fantastic decoration. On the other hand they might have been inspired by a manuscript, not very long discovered, in which Sir David Lindsay of the Mount when Lord Lyon King-at-Arms drew and coloured the arms of the principal Scottish nobles and embellished it with the same fanciful heraldic and animal devices painted some 80 years later in the great gallery of Earlshall at the instigation of Sir William Bruce and his Lady Agnes.

The restoration of the painted roof was one of Lorimer's supreme achievements. When Mr. Mackenzie engaged him it was in such a state of decay from years of rain percolating through the rotting roof above that sections had fallen in. Piece by piece with infinite patience and loving care the painted surface was stripped from its rotten wood and glued to sound wood which was then secured to the repaired outer roof. When this intricate work was completed the whole pictorial pattern was reverently restored to its original splendour.

The central block of the house contains no bedrooms, all of which are interspersed precariously yet comfortably up the two towers, the main bedroom in the dominant tower having inevitably a secret escape passage.

Lorimer was not only an architect of houses. He was a late 19th early 20th century Capability Brown and the Earlshall garden which he created out of rough farm land can best be described in his own words taken from Christopher Hussey's book of his work : '' The natural park comes up to the walls of the house on the one side, on the other you stroll out into the garden enclosed. That is all-a house and a garden enclosed ; but what a paradise such a place can be made. Such surprises- little gardens within the gardens, the ' month's' garden, the herb garden, the yew alley and the kitchen garden too, and this nothing to be ashamed of, to be smothered away from the house, but made delightful by its laying out ".

Monkton House near Edinburgh. this very fine house is at present, for sale, in excellent condition and with lovelly gardens, has many fine period details still preserved, and the styles of the the various periods of its construction give it a noble character, well worth looking at the agents site, or if you are near Edinburgh, try contacting the agents direct for veiwing.

Property for Sale From Estate Agent - Rettie & Co - Edinburgh ...

Offers in excess of £1,600,000; House; 6 bedrooms, 3 reception rooms, 3 bathrooms. Rettie & Co - Edinburgh - Sales. House for sale - Monkton House, ...Monkton House, Musselburgh, East Lothian
Quite outstanding fortified Laird's house with tower dating from pre 1500
Charming 'B' listed cottage, outbuildings and approximately 3 acres of mature garden and woodland
Oak panelled..
www.primelocation.com/uk-estate-agents/properties/a/rett/uk/y/sr/s/ - 64k -

what was Monday's problem

An asteroid which may be as big as a ten-storey building has passed close by the Earth, astronomers say.

I do not know what you were up to on Monday or what worries you felt were important on that day but it could have been worse.

The object, known as 2009 DD45, thought to be 21-47m (68-152ft) across, raced by our planet at 1344 GMT on Monday.

The gap was just 72,000 km (44,750 miles); seems a lot but just think that this is only a fifth of the distance between our planet and the Moon.

It is in the same size range as a rock which exploded over Siberia in 1908 with the force of 1,000 atomic bombs.

The object was first reported on Saturday by the Siding Spring Survey, a near-Earth object search programme in Australia.

It was confirmed by the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Centre (MPC), which catalogues Solar System objects.

The closest recent flyby listed by the MPC is 2004 FU162, a small asteroid about 6m (20ft) across which came within about 6,500km (4,000 miles) of our planet in March 2004.

The latest object, 2009 DD45, passed by our planet at only twice the altitude of satellites in geosynchronous orbit.

In 1908, an object with a similar size exploded over Siberia, flattening 80 million trees over an area of 2,000 square km (800 square miles) near the Tunguska river.

"There is still a lot of debate over how big the Tunguska object was," Professor Alan Fitzsimmons, an astronomer at Queens University Belfast, told BBC News.

"It was always thought to be 50 or 70m across. But some recent calculations have implied it may have been even smaller than that - maybe down to 30m in size.

Buying a house in Brazil

I have no real idea of how many people would dream of buying a house in Brazil, whether it would be for permanent living or holidays here, I came by way of marriage, so my reasons are somewhat different and less calculated. For many people I would image that the language is possibly a draw back, Portuguese is not quite so straight forward, although it is within a whisker of being similar to Spanish, and here again it has similarities to Italian and French, so there are at least these Latin countries that may have an interest in buying into the Brazilian property market. The good reasons at the moment for buying here are the now rising costs of living in Europe and in the United States, along with the fact that well over half the area of Brazil is close enough to the Equator to have a virtual summer time climate, taking a line from Rio de Janeiro going North, that is, taking the same point and going South it is almost the same climate as Europe, with possibly more rain fall, this is certainly true for the city of Sáo Paulo, which is constantly suffering flooding due to heavy rain. This line also marks a cultural difference in Brazil, the North is more basic and old colonial style with little interest in the arts and theatre, while in the South there is still the European late colonial feel and they still keep a keen attachment to their roots in Europe. It is these Southern states that form the backbone of the economy and have ties to United states and Europe ( although virtually none with Great Britain).
The economy of Brazil is now fairly stable and growing at a reasonable pace, not too fast, like the Chinese and therefore prone to burn out or risks of world economy blunders, and yet it is growing at a rate that allows it to view the world economies and make adjustments as it grows. it is still trailing its in its own ambitions of getting good education and health care to all, the state of the national health service is abysmal, it really does require a great investment, as too does the road systems in Brazil. The country is in real terms a novice, politically and with this come corruption, which often is seen as a mere fragrance of rules which virtually all Brazilians do. Remember that here marriage is more a state of co habitation and not any religious or social ceremony, therefore many rules are flaunted and abuse can go without justice; there lies another social problem in that the police are grossly under staffed and under paid, there are not enough places in prisons or police stations , for the amount of arrests that could be made, so many criminals are set free within 24 hours, it is very much accepted but verbally decried.
These problems are more noticeable in the large cities and generally for those that are self sufficient in funds and movement, they are not likely to affect your daily life in Brazil.
Brazil is a country with such mixed traditions that few could even tell you what came first and whether one tradition is a mixture of others. This mixture has the benefit of loosing race within it and therefore you will find a more relaxed attitude to mixed marriages and religions, which are also a mixture and not even the Catholic religion as much similarity to that in Italy.
I have for some time thought about moving to another part of Brazil, my ex wife came from Salvador and that is why I origionaly moved there, although I now live some short distance up the coast, North of Salvador, in a small fishing town that has given way to local tourism (Brazilians).
For the six years I have been here it has grown considerably and is very popular with the Brazilians who own houses in Salvador and also here in Jauá, a mix of bankers, medicals, shop owners and the families that have had houses here for the last 30 years, always returning at the weekends to get their share of sunshine and beach life, then disappearing back to Camacari or Salvador for work during the week.


Here lies my problem with living in Jauá, for there are two sides to my trade and life generally, I am an artist and a furniture maker, as well as a furniture restorer, in the past I have returned to Scotland to pick up three months work there, 90 days is the maximum I can work without the government wishing to seek tax from any earnings in Brazil. This , and the letting out of my house for the Brazilian summer of December, January and February ( includes Carnaval) whilst I stay in my apartment next door to the house, allows me sufficient funds to live comfortably and pay for my annual flights to and from the UK. Howvever it has the draw back of being constantly living without a sense of history and culture, this in Bahia, is combined with the lack of traditional crafts and my craft of furniture making and restoring, is none existant in Salvador, I have become aware of this when visiting my fiancée in Ouro Preto, Minas gerais, interior of Brazil on a line with Rio de Janeiro. There you become aware of furniture, although still colonial Portuguese and no tradition of new furniture making, but a sense that you can start a new furniture tradition and expand on it, being close to Rio and Sáo Paulo. The one problem with Ouro Preto is its climate, it is very high and mountainous, therefore gets high rainfall and is generally about the same temperature as Bristol, in the United Kingdom, and I am now more used to the warm and its values to my body.
There is a link, to the side of my Blog, that shows my house in Jauá and I am genuinely interested in selling the property in order to move for my work and my fiancées future work, she is now on a course for restoring paintings, sculpture and furniture in Ouro Preto, and it is partly this that will decide my future relocation.
Here I have taken some information from another site that in real terms gives a true idea of buying property here in Brazil, clearly any one interested in my own property, or property close to Salvador, can contact me and get advice and help, I speak Portuguese but cannot say that I speak good Portuguese, however it as been enough for me to get through life's ups and downs and learn the intrigues of Brazilian life and customs, so it is worthy if not perfect.

RULES OF THE GAME

1. You need a Brazilian ID called a CPF.

2. To get a CPF you need a birth certificate translated into Portuguese by a certified translator and legalized by the Brazilian consulate in your home country.

3. You make a trip to Banco Do Brasil with your passport and your birth certificate to formally apply for a CPF and pay a small fee.

4. The next day you go to the Receita Federal to receive your assigned CPF number.

5. Your CPF card is mailed to an address in Brazil within two months. (That's right, you need a Brazilian address.)

6. It is best to use a trustworthy broker. Not only will the a good broker help you find a property, but he or she will make sure the price is fair, as well as make certain that the property is owned by the seller, and that there are no debts on it.

7.   The contract is prepared by the selling broker and contains:

  -  All information of the seller

  -  All information of the buyer

  -  Location and specifications of the real estate

  -  The conditions of payment(s)

8. The contract is signed at the office of the broker.

9. You pay a down payment (usually about 10,000 Reais or $3,500 usd). 10. When payment has been made, your broker will arrange the registration of the property into your name via a cartorio (similar to a notary).

11. The cost for the property transfer is approximately 4%-5% of the purchase price.

12. Payment can be made all at once or in instalments of 12, 24, 36 or 48 months, but interest rates can be as high as 35%. If you opt to pay in instalments, there is also a currency risk. In other words, if the value of the Brazilian Real goes down, your real estate becomes cheaper, and vice versa.

13. There is a 1% "import" tax on transfer of funds from abroad

14. After the registration, you are the legal owner.

15. There is an annual property tax of approximately 0.6% per year of the assessed value.

16. You may need to hire a caretaker to live on the property when you are not there.

17.Visas: Foreigners are allowed 3 month visas, or 180 days total per year in Brazil. If you want to apply for a permanent visa, one of the following conditions must be met: You are married to a Brazilian - You have a child with a Brazilian.
- You invest 250.000 US dollar or Euro in Brazil.
- You have reached the age of retirement (50 years) with a pension of at least 2,000 euro or US dollar per month.

Glossary

CPF - Cadastro de Pessoas Físicas – A Brazilian document necessary for tax and identification purposes. Obtainable at the Brazilian Consulate in your place of residence or, more quickly, once you arrive in Brazil. Note: Once you have a CPF, you will have to keep it regularized by filing either a Declaração de Imposto de Renda or Declaração de Isento each year.

Cartório – A public notary office where official contracts are prepared and recorded.

Cartório de Registro de Imóveis – A special type of centralized notary office where all real estate transaction documents are registered.

Condomínio – A monthly fee that covers the cost of your apartment or housing complex infrastructure such as the doorman’s salary and the costs for lighting common areas.

COFECI – Conselho Federal de Corretores de Imóveis – or Federal Council of Real Estate Agents. Federal agency regulating the real estate industry. Click here to access the website for COFECI.

CRECI – Conselho Regional de Corretores de Imóveis – or Regional Council of Real Estate Agents. Regional agency regulating the real estate industry and licensing of real estate agents. Click here to access the website for CRECI Bahia.

DAJ – Documento de Arrecadação Judiciária – taxa de prestação de serviços. Document issued by government agencies for collecting officials fees – must be paid in a bank.

Declaração de Imposto de Renda – Brazilian income tax declaration. Any Brazilian or Brazilian resident with income over R$1.313,69/month must file this form yearly before April 29th. Foreign non-residents do not file this form but rather a Declaração de Isento by November 30th. Both forms can be filed online at http://www.receita.fazenda.gov.br/. Note: Non-resident property owners are taxed only on Brazilian income generated by their property but permanent residents in Brazil are taxed on their worldwide income.

Declaração de Isento – If you are a foreign non-resident or a Brazilian resident that earned less than R$1.313,69/month – including income from rental property owned in Brazil than you should file a Declaração de Isento each year between August and November 30th. If you fail to file either a Declaração de Isento or a Declaração de Imposto de Renda, then your CPF will become irregular and you will not be able to complete certain official transactions such as transfer ownership of property. The Declaração de Isento is quite simple to fill out and can be completed online at http://www.receita.fazenda.gov.br/.

IPTU – Imposto Predial e Territorial Urbano – or Urban Building and Land Tax. Property tax paid yearly or in 10 monthly installments to City Hall.

ITIV – Imposto sobre a Transmissão Inter-Vivos – or real estate transfer tax. 3% of registered purchase price for transferring ownership and issuing a new title deed to the property in your name.

Laudêmio – An antiquated system of land ownership where the land is still technically owned by an institution but the rights to use the land can be bought, sold and transferred by private individuals or businesses. In Bahia, the two most common institutions associated with laudêmio fees are the Catholic Church in Salvador (Mosteiro de São Bento) and the Brazilian navy (for properties near the beachfront). When you buy a property that has a laudêmio associated with it, you are buying the rights to use the land indefinitely, including the right to sell the property to whomever you wish or pass the rights along to your heirs. Under this system, the institution is legally required to grant full rights of use to the land in exchange for the payment of a fee upon each transfer of ownership. This fee, called a laudêmio, varies between 2.5% and 5% of the registered value of the property. The transfer of ownership can not be completed until you have a receipt that the laudêmio fee has been paid. Legally, the seller is responsible for paying the laudêmio fee but in practice, the buyer usually pays. It is best to take the laudêmio fee into account when negotiating a final price with the sel Prefeitura – City Hall. the Prefeito is the Mayor Procuração – A formal document that gives another person the legal right to act on your behalf in specific instances (power of attorney). May be a contract prepared individually or formally in a cartório. RNE – Registro Nacional de Estrangeiros – or National Register of Foreign Residents in Brazil. Identification card given to foreign nationals with permanent residency visas. This document is required for opening a bank account in Brazil.

When considering buying property in Brazil, the first step is to evaluate your needs and price range and compare them with the current market possibilities in Salvador to narrow down the neighborhoods and types of property that you will be looking at. Some questions to ask yourself are:

• Do you prefer an apartment or a house?
• Do you prefer property within the city limits of Salvador or outside of the city, such as on a remote beach?
• How much time will you spend in the property per year?
• What will you do with the property while not using it? Do you plan to rent it out?
• How often? Who will look after the property while you are away?
• What is most important for you? Price, location, or security?
• What kind of a return on investment are you looking for? Returns from vacation rentals? or are you looking to sell the property in the short term for a profit?

The answers to these questions can help you narrow down your possibilities and select the right property for your needs

Most transactions involving foreign investors are cash deals rather than financed – for two reasons:

• Rigorous bank requirements and high interest rates in Brazil mean that finding local sources for financing your purchase will be unlikely.
• Prices of real estate in Bahia are of such incredibly good value compared to prices in the US or Europe.

As such, buyers avoid delays associated with bank mandated property inspections and appraisals. You may, of course, privately contract an engineer or architect if you have doubts concerning the structural integrity or expansion possibilities for the property.

One exception to the no-financing rule is in the case of pre-construction properties. Construction companies usually offer an option of splitting payments up over a 3 year period. There many companies, some with Scandanavian owners, that are producing pre made housing of wood construction, usually in eucalyptos wood.

I. A final purchase price is agreed upon between buyer and seller, the terms of payment are agreed upon, and a preliminary contract is signed.

The real estate agents or lawyers will prepare a preliminary contract called a Contrato Particular de Promessa de Compra e Venda. This contract will outline all details concerning the terms of down payment and the final payment as agreed upon between buyer and seller. At this time, you should have someone research that all documents related to the property, the selling party, and the purchasing party are in order, that the taxes are up to date and that there are no liens against the property. Should any irregularities need resolving, make sure that they are taken care of before signing the preliminary contract, or at least have those details included in the contract as contingencies.

Once the property and documents have been verified, the buyer gives the down payment to the seller and both sign the preliminary contract. The time between arriving at a purchase price, signing the preliminary contract and paying the down payment is usually within a day or two, so be prepared to have your research done quickly and have a down payment available. On the other hand, the amount of time between signing this contract and making the final payment is up to negotiation between the buyer and seller. It could be immediate, within a week, or even up to a month.

The preliminary contract will include the terms, time limits for final payment and penalties should either party fail to adhere to the terms. In general, if the buyer fails to pay the final amount within the allotted time, the seller keeps the down payment and the contract is terminated. If the seller fails to adhere to any of the contractual duties or deliver the property on the agreed upon date, he or she will have to pay back the down payment in double to the buyer.Once the preliminary contract is signed and a down payment has been made, the deal is sealed legally and rarely will you have problems of either party withdrawing from their contractual duties – especially if final payment is expected soon.

II. Payment of transfer taxes, associated fees and preparation of final official contracts.

The buyer should use the time between signing the preliminary contract and the awaiting of final payment to complete these fee payments and ensure that all documents are properly prepared and ready for the day that you will take possession.

Principal fees that must be paid in order to purchase and transfer ownership of property in Salvador, Brazil:

• ITIV – 3% of total purchase price
• Laudêmio – 2.5% to 5%, (note: not all properties require the payment of a laudêmio fee)

The final sales contract must be prepared in a Cartório de Notas and then registered in the separate centralized Cartório de Registro de Imóveis. Extra fees for power of attorney documents, certifications, etc. vary depending upon the circumstances of the sale.

III. Final payment, taking possession of your new property and registration of the property in your name

You should have all contracts and documents in order by the day of final payment and the handing over of the keys. On that day, you make final payment, the official sales contract is signed, and you take possession of the property. The official sales contract must then be registered in the Cartório de Registro de Imóveis. Once your name appears on the title in that office, you are the official owner of that property.

In a decision handed down by the Supreme Court of Brazil, for all legal purposes, the only true owner of a property is that whose name appears on the deed in the city’s Cartório de Registro de Imóveis. As such, when purchasing property it should be the buyer’s primary motivation to ensure that his or her name appears on that deed as quickly as possible. Because of the centralized record keeping of real estate documents in Brazil, you may contract a lawyer or another professional versed in checking the status of real estate documents in these government offices to ensure that all items are in order for the transfer of ownership. Again, it is important that you do this before signing any contracts or making any down payments as title insurance is not common in Brazil.

Paradise Properties Bahia is here to help facilitate the process and can coordinate among various local professionals to guarantee a smooth and efficient transfer of ownership into your name.

One feature of Jauá is the river, often called the lakes, that splits the beach are from the now steadily growing urban side.
Brazil
Location: Eastern South America, bordering the Atlantic Ocean

Population: 169,806,557 (July 1998 est.)

Religions: Roman Catholic (nominal) 70%

Languages: Portuguese (official), Spanish, English, French

Geographic coordinates: 10 00 S, 55 00 W

Map references: South America

Coastline: 7,491 km

Maritime claims:
contiguous zone: 24 nm
continental shelf: 200 nm
exclusive economic zone: 200 nm
territorial sea: 12 nm

Area—comparative: slightly smaller than the US

Climate
Brazil is located in the Southern Hemisphere. Thus, its seasons are opposite to those of the Northern Hemisphere: The below stated seasons apply all across Brazil, however the temperatures shown are based on the north east coast line of Brazil as this is where we sell properties.

* Spring: from September 22, to December 21 (23 to 28 Degrees Centigrade)
* Summer: from December 22 to March 21 (25 to 33 Degrees Centigrade)
* Fall / Autumn: from March 22 to June 21 (23 to 28 Degrees Centigrade)
* Winter: from June 22 to September 21 (23 to 28 Degrees Centigrade)

To view todays weather in ALL Brazilian Cities View Weather in ALL Brazil Cities

Area:
total: 8,511,965 sq km
land: 8,456,510 sq km
water: 55,455 sq km
note: includes Arquipelago de Fernando de Noronha, Atol das Rocas, Ilha da Trindade, Ilhas Martin Vaz, and Penedos de Sao Pedro e Sao Paulo

Land boundaries:
total: 14,691 km
border countries: Argentina 1,224 km, Bolivia 3,400 km, Colombia 1,643 km, French Guiana 673 km, Guyana 1,119 km, Paraguay 1,290 km, Peru 1,560 km, Suriname 597 km, Uruguay 985 km, Venezuela 2,200 km

Terrain: mostly flat to rolling lowlands in north; some plains, hills, mountains, and narrow coastal belt

Elevation extremes:
lowest point: Atlantic Ocean 0 m
highest point: Pico da Neblina 3,014 m

Natural resources: bauxite, gold, iron ore, manganese, nickel, phosphates, platinum, tin, uranium, petroleum, hydropower, timber
Land use:
arable land: 5%
permanent crops: 1%
permanent pastures: 22%
forests and woodland: 58%
other: 14% (1993 est.)

Irrigated land: 28,000 sq km (1993 est.)

Environment—current issues: deforestation in Amazon Basin destroys the habitat and endangers the existence of a multitude of plant and animal species indigenous to the area; air and water pollution in Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, and several other large cities; land degradation and water pollution caused by improper mining activities

Environment—international agreements: party to: Antarctic-Environmental Protocol, Antarctic Treaty, Biodiversity, Climate Change, Desertification, Endangered Species, Environmental Modification, Hazardous Wastes, Law of the Sea, Marine Dumping, Nuclear Test Ban, Ozone Layer Protection, Ship Pollution, Tropical Timber 83, Tropical Timber 94, Wetlands, Whaling signed, but not ratified: none of the selected agreements

Geography—note: largest country in South America; shares common boundaries with every South American country except Chile and Ecuador

For more information visit the UK Brazilian Embassy www.brazil.org.uk