Field Visit
Date August 1987
Event ID 1121705
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1121705
This L-plan tower-house (built 1577) stands on a slight eminence 1.2km WSW of Ashintully. Its main block has stood to two main storeys and an attic in height and has a stair-tower extruded at the W angle. Externally and within the detail is well executed and the tower is efficiently provided with enfilading loops. A hood-moulded panel niche with dated sill is set above the entrance-doorway in the S re-entrant. Internally the ground floor is divided into two barrel-vaulted compartments (that on the E the kitchen), with a service corridor on the S; a service-stair communicating with the hall was incorporated in the N end-wall. A well proportioned dog-leg stair, with ceiled-vault, provided the principle access to the first-floor hall, from which a newel-stair, corbelled-out over the N re-entrant, communicated with a cap-house and possibly also the attic. Probably in the 18th century the building was remodelled and enlarged windows were incorporated, mainly at first-floor level. Two corbels at the level of the cap-house (one a reused lintel) were possibly for a garderobe chute or hoarding.
On the S side of the tower there are the wasted remains of a barmkin, connecting on the NW side with a ditch (up to 5m broad). A counterscarp bank, on the S side of the terrace, may indicate the site of an original causeway.
Whitefield probably belongs to a cadet of the Spalding family. In the early 19th century the tower was partially demolished for a neighbouring farmsteading (NO 0904 6165).
Visited by RCAHMS (IMS) August 1987
RCAHMS 1990.
