Archaeology Notes

Event ID 700423

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/700423

NS35SE 2 35718 54025

The residence of the Cunninghames was a square tower which stood not far from the moot hill (NS35SE 1).

NSA 1845 (J Dobie)

The barony of Beith was given to the (Tironensian) monks of Kilwinning Abbey (NS34SW 6) by the wife of Sir Richard de Moreville towards the end of the 12th century. Their farm is clearly indicated by the name "Grangehill" (NS 356 546) and "The Maynes". Blaeu's map indicates a castellated mansion or tower house on part of the Maynes, half a mile SW of the Grange, where the abbot may have stayed when in the locality. (This tower may have been the main building of the monks' grange: of Mauchline Grange: NS42NE 2, secularised on the dissolution of the Abbey).

R Love 1876

NS 3597 5409. Traces of overgrown wall foundations of squared masonry 1.4m thick and 0.4m high where best preserved, are visible in a copse 200m NW of Court Hill (NS35SE 1). Adjoining the foundations, a section 5.0m long and 0.6m thick of the present field wall consists of mortared masonry.

Visited by OS (DS) 30 August 1956

These remains are generally as described in the previous field report. The section of mortared masonry in the dyke is the remains of the S gable of a rectangular building.

Surveyed at 1:2500.

Visited by OS (EGC) 2 July 1964

The significance of the remains described above is doubtful; the proportions of the building and vestiges of surrounding enclosure work are consistent with a deserted 18th / 19th century farmstead, and there is no local tradition of this being a tower or mansion.

Visited by OS (JRL) 18 January 1983.