Standing Building Recording

Date June 2001

Event ID 1001156

Category Recording

Type Standing Building Recording

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1001156

NT 5958 7134 A programme of building recording and trial trenching were undertaken in advance of the restoration of the tower as a private dwelling. The building is an L-plan tower house of probable 15th-century date (NMRS NT 57 SE 11). Much of the upper levels have collapsed, but the remainder of the building is relatively complete in terms of its primary design. There are only limited areas of late or secondary work: a guard chamber inserted by the remodelled entrance; a dovecote inserted in the upper levels of the N wing; areas of modern blocking or fill within doorways, windows and areas of collapse at the outer wall faces; insertion of a modern doorway in the S wall.

Most of this work post-dates the abandonment of the building and, overall, there is little evidence for any substantial remodelling during the period of its use as a house. Most of the surviving features correspond to a single, well-integrated design.

A series of hand-excavated trial trenches were executed around the exterior of the tower. These established the presence of substantial deposits of rubble around the tower, a result of 19th-century landscaping. Beneath this, evidence relating to previously unrecorded structural remains was revealed, including a flagged surface and the remains of an outer wall. A possible post-medieval ditch and original ground surface were uncovered on the N side of the tower.

(Full details lodged with the NMRS).

T Holden 2001.