Plean Tower comprises a small oblong tower house probably dating from the 15th century, and an adjoining 16th-century manor house.
Robert Bruce granted the barony of Plean, or Plane, to John d’Erth soon after 1314. The castle was probably built by Lord Somerville, who acquired the lands of Plean in 1449, through marriage.
An adjoining manor house was built in about 1528. In 1643 James Somervell, 8th Lord of Plane, sold the barony and lands to meet debts. It passed to the Nicholsons and the Elphinstones, but both the tower and the manor fell into disrepair. During the 1745 rebellion the Jacobite troops used the property.
Sir David Menzies restored the buildings in 1908, but by the 1930s they were again no longer in use. It was rebuilt from ruins by Nancy and John Patrick Wright and their sons in 1991-1997 to form a home and holiday accommodation.
Plean Castle originally had three stories and a garret, with parapet corbelling. In its rebuilt 1990s form there is a great hall in the tower with painted ceiling beams and a large fireplace. The adjoining modern 'manor house' is connected to the tower by a wooden walkway and is built over a vaulted basement surviving from the 1528 manor house.
References:The Roman Theatre of Mérida is a construction promoted by the consul Vipsanius Agrippa in the Roman city of Emerita Augusta, capital of Lusitania (current Mérida). It was constructed in the years 16 to 15 BCE. One of the most famous and visited landmarks in Spain, the Roman Theatre of Mérida is regarded as a Spanish cultural icon and was chosen as one of the 12 Treasures of Spain.
The theatre has undergone several renovations, notably at the end of the 1st century or early 2nd century CE (possibly during the reign of Emperor Trajan), when the current facade of the scaenae frons was erected, and another in the time of Constantine I (between 330 and 340), which introduced new decorative-architectural elements and a walkway around the monument. Following the theatre"s abandonment in Late Antiquity, it was slowly covered with earth, with only the upper tiers of seats (summa cavea) remaining visible.