Tumbledown Tower is Bran Stark's name for an abandoned watchtower in the north.
Layout
The isolated watchtower is found within the wolfswood, far from any villages. The stones that made the tower have fallen from their places and are overgrown with moss and ivy. Its vault, which has a door and a barrel-vaulted ceiling, still stands, however.[1]
History
Bran Stark assumes the tower has been abandoned for thousands of years.[1]
Recent Events
A Storm of Swords
Bran Stark, Hodor, and Jojen and Meera Reed rest in the tower's vault on their journey north to the Wall. Although its true name has been lost, Bran names it "Tumbledown Tower" for its appearance. Hodor enjoys swinging his dull iron sword against a rotted tree outside of the tower.[1]
While Meera is out finding food, Bran skinchanges into Summer; Bran sees his direwolf claim a deer from a wolfpack. Meera returns with frogs and trout, and she has Bran help her prepare a stew while Hodor finds wood outside. Meera would prefer to remain at the safe tower and thereby avoid the war, but Jojen insists they need to continue north to the lands beyond the Wall. The crippled Bran eventually asks the Reeds to guide him north to find the three-eyed crow.[1]
Quotes
Bran was back again, down in the damp vault of some ancient watchtower that must have been abandoned thousands of years before. It wasn't much of a tower now. Even the tumbled stones were so overgrown with moss and ivy that you could hardly see them until you were right on top of them.[1]
—thoughts of Bran Stark
Meera: Tumbledown Tower's a good place for us. No villages near, the woods are full of game, there's fish and frogs in the streams and lakes ... and who is ever going to find us here?
Jojen: This is not the place we are meant to be.[1]—Meera Reed and Jojen Reed
If they stayed here, hidden down beneath Tumbledown Tower, no one would find them. He would stay alive. And crippled.[1]
—thoughts of Bran Stark