Archaeology Notes

Event ID 656619

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/656619

NF75SE 12 7733 5050.

(NF 7733 5050) Borve Castle (NR) (Ruins)

OS 6" map, Inverness-shire, 2nd ed., (1904)

Borve Castle, Benbecula. The ruins of an oblong tower, 60ft by 36 1/2ft over walls 5 to 9ft thick, stand to 30ft high, indicating at least three storeys. The entrance is in the south wall, 6ft above the ground.

NSA (1845) states "there is no tradition in regard to the time or person by whom it was built," but MacGibbon and Ross attribute it to Lady Amie, wife of John of Isla, in the latter half of the 14th century.

New Statistical Account (NSA, R Maclean) 1845; D MacGibbon and T Ross 1889; RCAHMS 1928.

The remains of Borve Castle are generally as described above; the E, W and S walls stand to the height mentioned but the N wall is reduced to a rubble bank scarcely 1.0m high.

Surveyed at 1:2500.

Visited by OS (J T T) 25 May 1965.

Borve Castle is of at least three periods, the building sequence being, the erection of a nearly square tower to the E, the addition to this on the W of a smaller building of the same width, and the thickening of both the original E gable and later W gable to the interior, presubaly as floor scarcements. No sign of vaulting is visible in either section. The walls are so fragmentary as to make dating difficult, although the 14th century date assigned to the whole is parfectly possible. The E portion could be even earlier.

H B Millar and J Kirkhope 1965d.

NF 7733 5050 A desk-based survey and non-invasive site assessment was made of the ruin, in association with Simpson & Brown Architects.

Sponsor: Southern Isles Amenity Trust.

T Addyman 2000