Archaeology Notes

Event ID 679288

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/679288

NN90NW 12 92888 09248

(NN 9289 0924) Gleneagles Castle (NR).

OS 6" map, (1958)

Gleneagles Castle stands on what seems to be a natural mound, which may have been the site of an early Norman earthwork with its occompanying bailey, of which traces have been discovered.

The remains cover an area 50 by 30ft and the masonry walls are 9ft thick. They were repaired just before 1929 by H.M. Office of Works.

A Haldane 1929.

Gleneagles Castle (information from a plaque on the wall of the castle) is the roofless shell of a late 15th century tower, 13.5m by 7.3m within walls 2.3m thick, in part still at least three storeys high.

It stands on a natural mound defended around the top of the slope by a clearly defined knife-edged earth-and-stone bank, c.7.0m wide at base by 1.3m high on the inside and 2.7m high on the outside, probably the remains of a barmkin wall, although it could incorporate the remains of a small iron age earthwork, for which the site would have been suitable.

On the east there are two mounds of stones, probably debris from the Ministry of Works consolidation, and there are remains of subsidiary buildings, up to 1.0m high, between the tower and the bank.

Revised at 1/2500.

Visited by OS (W D J) 12 October 1967.

Scheduled as 'Gleneagles Castle, tower and earthwork'.

Information from Historic Scotland, scheduling document dated 13 December 2000.