Dovecote#Dovecotes of the United Kingdom

File:PSM V88 D069 Motorized dovecote for homing pigeons.png]]

File:Duvslag. Ambodifomby, Ambodifombi. Madagaskar - SMVK - 021946.tif

The oldest dovecotes are thought to have been the fortress-like dovecotes of Upper Egypt and the domed dovecotes of Iran. In these regions the droppings were used by farmers for fertilization. Pigeon droppings were also used for leather tanning and making gunpowder.{{cite journal |last1=Tepper |last2=Rosen |last3=Haber |last4=Bar-Oz |year=2017 |title=Signs of soil fertigation in the desert: A pigeon tower structure near Byzantine Shivta, Israel |journal=Journal of Arid Environments |volume=145 |pages=81–89 |doi=10.1016/j.jaridenv.2017.05.011|bibcode=2017JArEn.145...81T}}

In some cultures, particularly Medieval Europe, 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 a 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.

File:IranÖstlichIsfahanTaubenhäuser1.jpg

Dotted with wooden pegs and hundreds of holes, the towers provided shelter and breeding areas for the birds to nest and raise their young in a mostly harsh desert environment. In Saudi Arabia, fourteen towers were spotted in 2020 and were the oldest seen in the Middle Eastern country. They have often been spotted in Iran, Egypt, and Qatar, where they have a lengthy history dating back to the 13th century. Dovecotes are also prevalent in ancient Iran and Anatolia. Pigeons were found in human settlements in Egypt and the Middle East since the dawn of agriculture, probably attracted to seeds people planted for their crops.{{Cite web|date=13 February 2020|title=Historical Adobe Pigeon Towers Located Near Riyadh Captured in Photographs by Rich Hawkins|url=https://www.thisiscolossal.com/2020/02/rich-hawkins-pigeon-towers-riyadh/|access-date=8 September 2020|website=Colossal|language=en}}

In the 17th century, a European traveller counted up to 3000 dovecotes in the Isfahan area of Persia (Hadizadeh, 2006, 51–4). Today, over 300 historic dovecotes have been identified in Isfahan Province and a total of 65 have been registered on the National Heritage List (Rafiei, 1974, 118–24). Dovecotes were constructed to produce large quantities of high-quality organic fertilizer for Isfahan's rich market gardens. The largest dovecotes could house 14,000 birds, and were decorated in distinctive red bands so as to be easily recognizable to the pigeons.{{cite journal |last1=Amirkhani |first1=Aryan |last2=Okhovat |first2=Hanie |last3=Zamani |first3=Ehsan |title=Ancient Pigeon Houses: Remarkable Example of the Asian Culture Crystallized in the Architecture of Iran and Central Anatolia |journal=Asian Culture and History |date=July 2010 |volume=2 |issue=2 |pages=45–47 |doi=10.5539/ach.v2n2p45 |citeseerx=10.1.1.674.1727}}

The dovecotes in Cappadocia are mostly designed like rooms which are set up by carving the rocks. The oldest examples of these cotes in the region were built in the 18th century but they are few. Most of the cotes in the region were built in the 19th and early 20th century (øúçen, 2008). It is significantly evident that the cotes were constructed near water sources, on a place, above the valley and their entrance, called as mouth of the cotes were mostly built in the east or south direction of valleys. By this way of construction, it was proposed to protect the cotes from cold and get sunlight inside. The cotes were generally constructed by carving the rocks as a room.

File:MazorColumbarium.jpg (Israel)]]

The presence of dovecotes is not documented in France before the Roman invasion of Gaul by Caesar. Pigeon keeping was then a passion in Rome: The Roman-style, generally round, columbarium had its interior covered with a white coating of marble powder. Varro, Columella, and Pliny, all wrote about pigeon keeping 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.

The French word for dovecote is pigeonnier or colombier. In some French provinces, especially Normandy, 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.{{cite web |url=http://pharouest.ac-rennes.fr/e220032R/pigeon/OULHAC~1/PAGE2.HTM |title=Les façades à boulins |publisher=Pharouest.ac-rennes.fr |access-date=4 June 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120304072721/http://pharouest.ac-rennes.fr/e220032R/pigeon/OULHAC~1/PAGE2.HTM |archive-date=4 March 2012}} 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).{{cite web |url=http://pharouest.ac-rennes.fr/e220032R/pigeon/bideau/doc/lestours.htm |title=Les tours-fuies: manoir de Toul-an-Gollet |publisher=Pharouest.ac-rennes.fr |access-date=4 June 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120304072729/http://pharouest.ac-rennes.fr/e220032R/pigeon/bideau/doc/lestours.htm |archive-date=4 March 2012}} 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.

File:Manoir d'ango 03.jpg]]

In France, it was called a colombier, fuie or pigeonnier.{{cite book |last1=Lolme |first1=J. L. de |title=French and English dictionary |year=1868 |publisher=Cassell & Company |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LXkCAAAAQAAJ&dq=france+pigeonnier+clombier&pg=PA772 |language=en}} With its extensive cultivation of grain, the favourite food of pigeons, France had 42,000 pigeonniers by the 17th century, especially in Normandy and the Midi.{{cite book|first=Colin Duncan|last=Taylor|title=Menu from the Midi: A Gastronomic Journey through the South of France|year=2021|publisher=Matador|language=English|isbn=978-1800464964}}

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 ones at the chateau d'Aulnay in Aulnay-sous-Bois{{cite web |title=château d'Aulnay - Patrimoine - Atlas de l'architecture et du patrimoine |url=https://patrimoine.seinesaintdenis.fr/chateau-d-Aulnay |website=patrimoine.seinesaintdenis.fr|date=4 March 2023}} and the one at Château de Panloy in Port-d'Envaux{{cite news |title=Château de Panloy (17): un toit neuf pour le pigeonnier de 400 ans |url=https://www.sudouest.fr/charente-maritime/port-d-envaux/chateau-de-panloy-17-un-toit-neuf-pour-le-pigeonnier-de-400-ans-1648897.php |website=SudOuest.fr |date=12 February 2020 |language=fr-FR|last1=Vrillaud |first1=Jean-Jacques}} are among the largest 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.{{cite journal |last1=Musset |first1=Jacqueline |title=Le droit de colombier en Normandie sous l'Ancien Régime |url=https://www.persee.fr/doc/annor_0003-4134_1984_num_34_1_6380 |journal=Annales de Normandie |pages=51–67 |doi=10.3406/annor.1984.6380 |date=1984|volume=34}} 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 {{convert|1|ha|acre|frac=2}} of arable land.{{Citation needed|date=August 2018}}

The dovecotes in Cappadocia are mostly designed like rooms which are set up by carving the rocks. The oldest examples of these cotes in the region were built in the 18th century but they are few. Most of the cotes in the region were built in the 19th and early 20th century (øúçen, 2008). It is significantly evident that the cotes were constructed near water sources, on a place, above the valley and their entrance, called as mouth of the cotes were mostly built in the east or south direction of valleys. By this way of construction, it was proposed to protect the cotes from cold and get sunlight inside. The cotes were generally constructed by carving the rocks as a room.

File:PigeonHouse Lychnaftia Tinos.jpg, Greece]]

Dovecotes in Greece are known as Περιστεριώνες, Peristeriones (plural). Such structures are very popular in the Cycladic islands and in particular Tinos, which has 1300 dovecotes.{{cite book |last1=Guides |first1=Fodor's Travel |title=Fodor's Essential Greek Islands: with Great Cruises & the Best of Athens |date=6 February 2018 |publisher=Fodor's Travel |isbn=978-1-64097-007-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=OVtCDwAAQBAJ&dq=tinos+dovecotes&pg=PT264 |language=en}} The systematic breeding of doves and pigeons as sources of meat and fertilizer was introduced by the Venetians{{cite book |last1=Siger |first1=Jeffrey |title=Target: Tinos |date=22 May 2012 |publisher=Sourcebooks, Inc. |isbn=978-1-61595-400-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=eW2m8BYx5t4C&dq=tinos+dovecotes&pg=PT91 |language=en}}{{cite book |last1=Heikell |first1=Rod |title=Greek Waters Pilot |year=1990 |publisher=Imray Laurie Norie & Wilson |isbn=978-0-85288-146-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V6cZAQAAIAAJ&q=tinos+dovecotes |language=en}} in the 15th century. Dovecotes are built in slopes protected by the prevailing north wind and oriented so that their facade is towards an open space.

File:Dovecote, Woodstock.jpg

File:Dovecote (Columbarium), Adare, Co. Limerick, Ireland.jpg]]

Stone dovecotes were built in Ireland from the Norman period onward, to supply meat to monastic kitchens and to large country houses.{{Cite web|url=https://www.irishexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/arid-20023468.html|title=Pigeon a feather in cap of world history|first=Dick|last=Warner|date=22 January 2007|website=Irish Examiner}} A traditional dovecote was a multistorey building with inner walls lined with alcoves or ledges to mimic a cave.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GwiWDwAAQBAJ&q=dovecote+ireland&pg=PT142|title=Ireland's Birds|first=Niall Mac|last=Coitir|date=28 September 2015|publisher=Gill & Macmillan Ltd|isbn=9781848894983|via=Google Books}} They survive in many parts of Ireland, with notable examples at Ballybeg Priory,{{Cite web|url=https://www.thejournal.ie/neil-jackman-ballybeg-doulagh-1445943-May2014/|title=Heritage Ireland: Discovering the ancient Slí Mhór among the bluebells|first=Neil|last=Jackman|website=TheJournal.ie|date=3 May 2014}} Oughterard,{{Cite web|url=https://visitgalway.ie/oughterard-dovecote/|title=Oughterard Dovecote | Dovecote in Oughterard | Connemara Dovecote}} Cahir,{{Cite web|url=https://www.tipperarylive.ie/news/news/580415/what-s-going-on-in-cahir-you-ll-be-pleasantly-surprised-to-see.html|title=What's going on in Cahir? - You'll be pleasantly surprised to see!|website=www.tipperarylive.ie}} Woodstock Estate, Mosstown, and Adare.{{Cite web|url=https://www.buildingsofireland.ie/buildings-search/building/21824048/trinitarian-abbey-blackabbey-adare-county-limerick|title=Trinitarian Abbey, BLACKABBEY, Adare, County Limerick|website=Buildings of Ireland}}{{Cite web|url=https://theirishaesthete.com/category/dovecote/|title=Dovecote|website=The Irish Aesthete}} Three Irish Cistercian houses held dovecotes: St. Mary's Abbey, Glencairn, Mellifont Abbey and Kilcooley Abbey.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ndGMAAAAQBAJ&q=dovecote+ireland&pg=PT146|title=A Monastic Landscape: The Cistercians in Medieval Ireland|first=Dr Breda|last=Lynch|date=5 November 2010|publisher=Xlibris Corporation|isbn=9781477165966|via=Google Books}}

Dovecotes were included in several of the villa designs of Andrea Palladio. 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.

File:Pigeonhouse.JPG, Netherlands]]

Dovecotes in Belgium are mostly associated with pigeon racing. They have special features, such as trap doors that allow pigeons to fly in, but not out. The Flemish word for dovecote is "duivenkot". The Dutch word for dovecote is "duiventoren", or "duiventil" for a smaller dovecot.

Dovecotes in Spain are known as a Palomar or Palomares (plural). These structures are very popular in the Tierra de Campos region and also has a scale model of this type of building at a theme park located in the Mudéjar de Olmedo. Other good examples are located at Museums located in Castroverde de Campos, (Zamora Province), Villafáfila, (Zamora Province), Santoyo, (Palencia Province) and the famous "Palomar de la Huerta Noble" in the municipality of Isla Cristina (Huelva Province) which was built in the 18th century to house 36,000 pigeons.

The Szekely 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 a 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.{{cite web|url=http://historicaltextarchive.com/hungary/kapu.jpg|title=Photo|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120222024909/http://historicaltextarchive.com/hungary/kapu.jpg|archive-date=22 February 2012|url-status=dead}}

The Romans may have introduced dovecotes or columbaria to Britain since pigeon holes have been found in Roman ruins at Caerwent. However, it is believed that doves were not commonly kept there until after the Norman Conquest. 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 England was built in 1326 at Garway in Herefordshire.Spandl, Klara (1998) British Archaeology, London: Exploring the round houses of doves; Issue no 35, June 1998 ISSN 1357-4442 The Welsh name colomendy has itself become a place name (similarly in Cornwall: colomen & ty = dove house). One medieval dovecote still remains standing on the site of a hall at Potters Marston in Leicestershire, a hamlet near to the village of Stoney Stanton.

Scotland has a sizeable number of doocots, particularly concentrated on the east of the country in Fife and East Lothian where the richer arable fields provided grain for food. A gazetteer in Buxbaum lists 108 doocots as of 1987.{{Cite book |last=Buxbaum |first=Tim |title=Scottish Doocots. Shire Album 190 |publisher=Shire Publications Ltd |year=1987 |isbn=0-85263-848-5 |location=Aylesbury, Bucks, UK |pages=32 pp}}{{Cite book |last=Buxbaum |first=Tim |title=Scottish Garden Buildings: From Food to Folly |publisher=Mainstream Publishing Ltd, in association with the Royal Incorporation of Architects in Scotland |year=1989 |isbn=1-85158-113-8 |location=Edinburgh |pages=121–133}} Early purpose-built doocots in Scotland are often of a "beehive" shape, circular in plan and tapering up to a domed roof with a circular opening at the top. These are also found in the North of England and are sometimes referred to as "tun-bellied".{{NHLE|num=1006572|desc=Dovecote S of Glebe Farm, Embleton |access-date=20 January 2020}} In the late 16th century, they were superseded by the "lectern" type, rectangular with a mono-pitched roof sloping fairly steeply in a suitable direction.{{cite web |url=http://www.ihbc.org.uk/context_archive/57/doocots/scotland.html |title=Doocots in Scotland |publisher=Ihbc.org.uk |access-date=4 June 2012 |archive-date=24 September 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924033320/http://www.ihbc.org.uk/context_archive/57/doocots/scotland.html |url-status=dead}} Phantassie Doocot is an unusual example of the beehive type topped with a mono-pitched 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.{{cite web |url=http://www.leopardmag.co.uk/feats/82/foos-yer-doos-aye-pickin |title=Foo's yer doos – aye pickin? |publisher=Leopardmag.co.uk |access-date=4 June 2012 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120912063212/http://www.leopardmag.co.uk/feats/82/foos-yer-doos-aye-pickin |archive-date=12 September 2012}}{{cite web |first1=Iain |last1=Johnstone |first2=Sharon |last2=Halliday |year=2001 |url=https://www.hiddenglasgow.com/doocots/index.htm |title=doocots (dookits) |publisher=HiddenGlasgow.com |access-date=4 June 2012}}

Image:Corstorphine Castle doocot, Edinburgh.JPG|A castle doocot at Corstorphine, Edinburgh (16th century)

Image:Ross doocot, Linlithgow.JPG|Beehive-shaped doocot, Linlithgow, Scotland

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.

File:Auchmacoy Dovecot 05.jpg|Doocot at Auchmacoy, Crawhead, Aberdeenshire, built 1638.

Image:Newark Castle doocot int.jpg|Looking up inside the doocot at Newark Castle, Port Glasgow

Image:Eglintondoocot.JPG|{{center|Lectern-style doocot at the site of the old Eglinton Mains farm in Ayrshire, Scotland}}

Image:Doocotstables.JPG|{{center|Doocot at the Eglinton castle stables courtyard}}

Image:Doocotnests.JPG|{{center|Nesting boxes in the Eglinton doocot}}

Image:Newbigging doocot, near Aberdour in Fife.JPG|Ruined doocot at Newbigging near Aberdour, Scotland, revealing the nesting boxes

Image:Dovecote St Andrews.jpg|Bogward Doocot, St Andrews, restored by the St Andrews Preservation Trust

Image:Milton mcdowall mills.jpg|Mills at Milton of Campsie with a tall doocot in the background.Stoddart, John (1800), Remarks on local Scenery and Manners in Scotland. London: William Miller;facing p. 206

File:Phantassie doocot (16thC), East Lothian.JPG|16th-century doocot at Phantassie, East Lothian

Image:Lady Kitty's Doocot, Haddington, East Lothian.JPG|Lady Kitty's Doocot at Haddington, Scotland, incorporated into a garden wall

Image:Sheriffhall Doocot - geograph.org.uk - 444397.jpg|Doocot converted from the stair tower of a demolished house at Sheriffhall near Dalkeith, Scotland

Image:Rooftop doocots in the West Bow, Edinburgh.jpg|Two house doocots in the West Bow, Edinburgh, Scotland

Image:East Morningside House doocot, Edinburgh, Scotland.JPG|Doocot {{Circa|1730}} in the grounds of a private house, Edinburgh, Scotland

Image:Glasgow doocot Firrhill 1.jpg|Urban doocot in Glasgow, Scotland

Image:Glasgow doocot Partick 1.jpg|Urban doocot in Glasgow, Scotland

Image:Doocot at Elcho - geograph.org.uk - 1280869.jpg|16th-century doocot at Elcho Castle, Scotland

File:Shirley Plantation dovecote.jpg dovecote]]

In the U.S., an alternative English name for dovecotes is pigeonaire (from French). This word is more common than "dovecote" in Louisiana and other areas with a heavy Francophonic heritage.

Québec City, Canada, has a pigeonnier that stands in a square in Old Québec; the Pigeonnier is also the name of the square itself and is where street artists present their shows.

A notable frame dovecote is located at Bowman's Folly, added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1974.{{NRISref|version=2010a|refnum=69000216}}{{cite web |url=http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/registers/Counties/Accomack/001-0002_Bowman%27s_Folly_1969_Final_Nomination.pdf |title=Bowman's Folly |series=National Register of Historic Places inventory nomination form |publisher=Commonwealth of Virginia |department=Department of Historic Resources / Virginia Historic Landmarks Commission |date=n.d. |access-date=13 May 2013 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120926184558/http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/registers/Counties/Accomack/001-0002_Bowman's_Folly_1969_Final_Nomination.pdf |archive-date=26 September 2012}} and {{cite AV media |title=Image accompanying Bowman's Folly nomination |medium=photograph |url=http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/registers/Counties/Accomack/nr_bowmans_folly_photos.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120926184605/http://www.dhr.virginia.gov/registers/Counties/Accomack/nr_bowmans_folly_photos.htm |archive-date=26 September 2012}}

{{Unreferenced section|date=September 2016}}

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 façade 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:

;square dovecote with quadruple vaulting: built before the fifteenth-century (Roquetaillade Castle, Bordeaux) or Saint-Trojan near Cognac

;cylindrical tower: fourteenth century to the sixteenth century, and common until the present in parts of Spain, 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.

;dovecote on stone or wooden pillars: cylindrical, hexagonal or square;

;hexagonal dovecote: like the dovecotes of the Royal Mail at Sauzé-Vaussais;

;square dovecote with flat roof tiles: seventeenth century and a slate roof in the eighteenth century;

;lean-to structure: propped 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 housing a rotating ladder, or "potence", that facilitated maintenance and the collection of eggs and squabs.

File:Decorative Dovecote on house gable in Finneytown, Ohio.jpg]]

Gable and rooftop dovecotes are associated with storybook houses with whimsical design elements.{{cite web |title=Revival period |website=LA City Preservation |url=http://preservation.lacity.org/sites/default/files/Period%20Revival.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=18 July 2018 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180718174520/http://preservation.lacity.org/sites/default/files/Period%20Revival.pdf}}

{{Quote box|quote = A dovecote is a small, decorative shelter for pigeons, often built on top of a house. It looks like a receptacle for secret messages from a fairy-tale world, and this whimsy makes up for the fact that no one actually wants pigeons roosting on their house. Dovecotes are especially common in certain parts of the Los Angeles suburbs, on 'storybook ranch' homes — houses recast on the exterior to resemble a cottage that one of the Seven Dwarves might live in.{{cite magazine |author=Angela Serratore |title=Letter of Recommendation: 'A Field Guide to American Houses' |magazine=The New York Magazine |date=2016-01-10 |page=24 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/10/magazine/letter-of-recommendation-a-field-guide-to-american-houses.html}}

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File:Peper Harow Dovecot DSC 1606.jpg|Peper Harow Dovecote

File:Manorbier Dovecote DSC 6947.jpg|Manorbier Dovecote

File:Dovecote, Tarn-et-Garonne, France.JPG|A dovecote in the Tarn-et-Garonne department of France, near Lauzerte

File:Les Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry février.jpg|The month of February in the Limburg Brothers' Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry, a painting dated 1416, showing a dovecote

File:The Dovecote.jpg|{{center|The Dovecote, listed 16th-century dovecote in Long Wittenham.[http://www.rsa-architects.co.uk/projects_restoration.html Robert Stephenson (1986), Conversion of Listed 16th-century Dovecote.]}}

File:Abbaye Saint-Vincent (Le Mans) Facade Sud.jpg|Dovecote at the Abbaye Saint-Vincent in Le Mans, France

File:Dovecote HHPP purfleet.JPG|Dovecote at High House Purfleet, Essex

File:Colombier at Hamptonne in Jersey.jpg|A colombier (dovecote) in Jersey, Channel Islands

File:Pigeontower.jpg|The Pigeon Tower at Rivington on the West Pennine Moors, England

File:Dove house.jpg|Small dovecote at the Lost Gardens of Heligan

File:Dovecote hudson valley.jpg|Hudson Valley dovecote in Saugerties, New York

File:Palomar - Tierra de Campos.jpg|Palomar (dovecote) in Tierra de Campos, Spain

File:Palomares 7.jpg|Nesting holes on inside walls of an old dovecote, Palazuelo de Vedija (Tierra de Campos), Spain

File:Kaftar-khooneh.jpg|A Kaftar khooneh (lit. pigeon house) in Isfahan, Iran.

File:Uncle Sam Plantation 09 cropped.jpg|Hexagonal pigeonnier with a pointed roof at Uncle Sam Plantation near Convent, Louisiana

File:Old-dovecot.jpg|A (derelict) dovecot in Zemst, Belgium

File:Dovecote by Oscar Niemeyer in Brasília.jpg|Modern dovecote designed by Oscar Niemeyer and located on the Praça dos Três Poderes (Three Powers Plaza) in Brasília, Brazil

File:Pigeon house (Neduntheevu).JPG|Pigeon house in Neduntheevu, used by colonial powers (Portuguese, Dutch or British during their rule in Sri Lanka)

File:Shirley Plantation dovecote interior.jpg|Shirley Plantation dovecote interior

File:Pigeon niches at Maresha.jpg|Columbarium (dovecote) interior wall at Maresha, Israel

File:View of columbarium at Maresha.jpg|Columbarium at Tell Maresha (Khirbet es Sandahannah) in Israel

• Chabutro
• Columbarium – repository of cinerary urns, the word originally denoted a dovecote
• Culverhouse – old English for dovecote
• Cunninghamhead – An example of a small doocot
• Museum of Scottish Country Life – An example of a doocot on a cart shed
• Pigeonhole principle
• Pigeon keeping
• Pigeon racing – More on the sport
• Squab (food) – The meat from birds kept in a dovecote

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• Cooke, Arthur (1920) A Book of Dovecotes London: T. N. Foulis

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• [http://www.pigeoncote.com/dovecote/dovecote.html The Pigeon Cote; compiled by John Verburg / Includes an annotated edition of A Book of Dovecotes and much more information on British dovecotes]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20121007001028/http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/201102/castles.of.the.fields.htm Castels of the Fields] pigeon towers near Isfahan
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X67TEgWqFh0 Commentary and video on the Eglinton Dovecote]
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hO0YcOBhEUw Commentary and examples of Scottish Doocots]