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Archaeology Notes
Date - 1971
Event ID 692417
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Archaeology Notes
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/692417
NO65SE 10.00 68783 51079
NO65SE 10.01 NO 687 510 Lead ball
(NO 6878 5108) Red Castle (NR)
OS 6" map (1971)
Redcastle, situated on a promontory and isolated by a ditch, was founded as a hunting seat by William the Lion (1165-1214) was besieged in 1579 and was ruinous although still partly roofed in 1770. The remains now consist of a possibly 13th century fragment of the massive wall of enceinte and the ruin of the 15th century rectangular tower. The name comes from the red freestone ashlar of which it is constructed.
(D MacGibbon and T Ross 1887; G Hay 1899; W D Simpson 1941; A J Warden 1884)
The remains of Red Castle are in a crumbling condition and very weathered. The enceinte wall is 6m high and 2m thick. A fragment can be traced just below ground level on the edge of the escarpment at the NE angle of the keep. Of the keep, the N wall and the returns of the E and W walls stand at or near their original height and are 1.7m thick. The S part of the keep is fragmentary, 1.2m high and grass-covered. The remains of a building in the N angle of the enceinte wall are modern. A slight indentation, 2.0m deep, in the natural slope c.10.0m NW of the curtain wall may represent the E end of the ditch but otherwise there is no trace of it.
Visited by OS (JLD) 19 June 1958
