Archaeology Notes

Event ID 703071

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/703071

NS43SW 3 40848 31699

(NS 4087 3169) Craigie Castle (NR) (remains of)

OS 6" map, (1969).

The ruins of Craigie Castle stand on a grassy knoll which appears to have been surrounded by a ditch. It evidently dates from the 15th century, though it is not all of the same period. A wide-splayed shot hole near the entrance passage is probably of 16th century date. The keep, along with another extended building (total size of the block: 98ft N-S by 36ft) has divided the castle into two halves, with an E and W courtyard (see plan in D MacGibbon and T Ross 1889). Craigie was the fee of Walter Hose, under Walter Stewart (about 1136-77), and evidently of his father, whose name is not known, before him. (G W S Barrow 1973). The castle, shown extant about 1300 (J D Galbraith 1975) was allowed to fall into ruins after 1600.

D MacGibbon and T Ross 1889; G W S Barrow 1973; J D Galbraith 1975.

Craigie Castle is now very ruined. The moat is still evident on all sides except the E.

Visited by OS (JLD) 3 June 1954.

Only the N and S walls of the central tower remain in a stable condition, otherwise, the few extant sections of courtyard wall are overgrown and confused by collapsed masonry. From photograph evidence (OS Field Surveyer JLD 1954), there has obviously been a major collapse of the southern courtyard wall in the past thirty years.

There is no suggestion of a complete ditch or moat circuit around the castle. A roughly 100m length of ditch, approximately 10m wide and 1.5m deep, runs along the line of the S courtyard wall, and an isolated 40m length of ditch, of similar proportions, lies to the NW. Both ditches fade at low, marshy ground on the W side.

Resurveyed at 1:2500.

Visited by OS (JRL) 21 June 1982.