Archaeology Notes

Event ID 705539

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/705539

NS68NW 2 64139 86386

(NS 6414 8638) Fintry Castle (NR) (Ruins)

OS 25" map (1922)

The remains of Fintry Castle are now far too much reduced to plan, but they suggest a main oblong block lying E-W on the top of the knoll and measuring about 55ft by 28ft; there are also indications of what may have been a tower at the west end of the north side. To the north and east of the castle ruins proper there are the foundations of a wall enclosing a courtyard, probably of the same period, with traces of outhouses along its inner face; the outhouse walls are thinner than that of the castle, which was found to be 6ft thick on the north side.

On the south side and below is a large quarry-pit from which, no doubt, the stone for the building was obtained. No doubt the castle was erected in the late 15th/early 16th century. In 1724 it was referred to as the "old ruinous Tower of Fintrie".

RCAHMS 1963

The remains of Fintry Castle are as described above. A section of rubble masonry 12m long by 1.3m wide and 1.3m high remains of its north wall; all other walls have fallen. The grass-covered foundations of the courtyard wall and outbuildings have a max. height of 0.3m and are spread to a width of 2.0m. Immediately to the south is a causeway possibly contemporary with the castle leading from its west end to the courtyard in the east.

Surveyed at 1/2500.

Visited by OS (RD) 3 March 1965.