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Field Visit
Date 25 February 1992
Event ID 1108201
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1108201
The pele-house called Northbank Tower, which has been reduced to a single storey and converted for use as a sheepfold, stands on a terrace on the S side of the Shaw Burn. It measures 5.3m from NE to SW by 4m transversely within rubble-faced earth-bonded walls which range from 1.3m to 1.5m in thickness and up to 2.3m in height; it is entered from the NE, but the SE side of the entrance has been very much reduced and rebuilt in drystone rubble. There is a scarcement 1.8m above ground level on the SE side. On the same terrace as the pele-house there is a rectilinear stock enclosure, which overlies the faint traces of what may have been the platforms of buildings and a small enclosure on the NE side of the tower.
On the lip of the whinstone terrace 30m SW of the tower are two turf-walled buildings, one of which has been cut away at its N end by quarrying. The W building measures 8.8m from NE to SW by 3.3m transversely within turf walls spread to 2.2m in thickness and 0.3m in height. The E building measures 12m from NE to SW by 7.6m transversely over turf walls reduced to 0.25m in height. The best parallels for these structures are the turf-walled buildings at Shiel Rig (NT60NE 24). A settlement called Northbank is depicted on Blaeu's map of Teviotdale, based upon Pont (Blaeu 1654), but not on Roy's map (Roy 1747-55) or Stobie's map of Roxburghshire (Stobie 1770). In the Hearth Tax return for 1691 there are two persons each with one hearth at Northbank (SRO E69/21/1).
Visited by RCAHMS (PJD) 25 February 1992.
