Field Visit
Date March 1993
Event ID 1155784
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1155784
NY 3721 8050 NY38SE 6
The remains of this building, which is probably a fortified house of late 16th- or 17th-century date, lie to the rear of a garden plot on the NW side of Auchenrivock steading (NY38SE 79), from where it would have enjoyed a particularly fine psospect across the valley towards Broomholm (NY38SE 80). The house was rectangular on plan, measuring 10.3m from N to S by 4.1m transversely over walls up to 0.9m thick and 1.7m high where best preserved (at the N end); the greater part of the E wall and part of the adjoining S wall have been removed by robbing. The interior was divided into two compartments, the smaller, on the N, containing a newel-stair of which only the cut-back treads remain. A chamber beneath the stair was lit by a small circular loophole in the N wall. The main apartment at ground floor level was vaulted with a loophole in the W wall (piercing the haunch of the vault and of the same type as that in the N wall) and a mural recess with splayed jambs (possibly a flue) towards the W end of the S wall.
The house possibly occupies the site of the tower-house that was the original seat of the Irving family and was burnt by Sir Christopher Dacre in 1513.
Visited by RCAHMS (IMS), March 1993.
Listed as tower.
RCAHMS 1997.
