Field Visit
Date February 1985
Event ID 1156533
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1156533
Greenan Castle NS 3117 1932 NS31NW 1
Greenan Castle is situated on a coastal promontory 180m of Greenan farmsteading and comprises a tower-house standing within the inner defences of an earlier earthwork castle (see NS31NW 27). A ditch (23m broad and 2m deep) cuts off an area at the head of the promontory measuring 28m by 16m, whilst on the S a bailey measuring 70m by 26m is protected by an outer ditch (13.7m broad and 3m deep). The tower is oblong on plan (10.05m by 8.4m overall), three storeys and a garret in height, and has a vaulted basement, crow-stepped gables and corbelled angle-rounds. The end-wall, on the NE, rises from a chamfered base-plinth; the entrance is at ground level and the lintel bears the date 1607 and the initials J K (John Kennedy of Baltersan). A mortared rubble wall (12.6m long, 1.3m thick and 3.1 m high), which extends along the crest of the promontory on the SW side, may be part of an earlier building. In the 1190s Roger de Scalebroc held a castle at Greenan, and during the 16th century the estate belonged to the Davidsons; a tower is on record in 1576.
RCAHMS 1985, visited February 1985.
(Grose 1789-91, ii, 198; Retours, Ayr, No. 18; MacGibbon and Ross 1896-7, iii, 383-4; Macfarlane 1906-8, ii, 9; Bryden 1910; Dillon 1954, 72; Tranter 1970, v, 207; Barrow 1980, 46, 58-9; Stell 1985b, 22.)
