Archaeology Notes

Event ID 706011

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/706011

NS91SW 5 9460 1398.

'This ruin is now interpretated as being a bastle house. The house measures 9.5m by 6.35m with walls 1m thick, the curvature of a barrel vault clearly evident. A ground floor entrance is on the W wall, immediately inside and to the left are five steps of a stair which led to the upper floor. Sandstone from the door was robbed out but the stone with the draw bar hole in it was found. A grip or gutter runs down the centre of the ground floor discharging through a drain in the S wall. Late additions to the ground floor include a fireplace, and are attributed to the 18th Century, as is the extensive area of cobbling outside the entrance. Several other remains in the immediate vicinity may also be houses, possibly a 17th Century fermtoun, seen as turf covered foundations. An arrangement of associated field systems and earth bank enclosures are noted. Finds so far from the excavation include 16th, 17th and 18th Century coins, remains of fifteen 18th Century wine bottles, 17th Century pottery, whorls, pins, buckles and buttons. Slate from the site cannot definitely be attributed to the roof'.

T Ward 1983; 1986

This house is now completely excavated. An area of cobbling has been exposed outside the entrance and shows several features such as walls, a drainage system and areas of burning. An extensive survey of the site has been undertaken by the RCAHMS and this shows up numerous buildings beneath the turf, some of which are probably houses.

T Ward 1987

Immediately to the south of the main house, the remains of two other buildings have been exposed; both of which are clearly byres with cobbled floor surfaces and raised stone areas on each side of a drainage channel. One internal dividing wall has clay bonding while the external walls appear to be of drystone construction. Small finds from the 16th-18th centuries include an Eizabeth 1 sixpence 1566.

T Ward 1988

This site is as previously described.

Visited by RCAHMS (PC) 14 October 1991

In 1990 a further two long buildings are being investigated. These are separated by a cobbled roadway. A room of the northern building has originally been a byre with a central drain discharging through the walls, which survive to a maximum height of 0.5m built as other structures in the complex using boulders with a clay infill. This building has been reduced in size. On the N and E sides double walls are clearly seen. At this period the drain was still in use as tunnels exist in both gable walls for it. After this the room was occupied as a house with a levelling off of the floors using slate and also infilling the drain. Three areas of intense fires on the floor and a range of domestic items such as whorls, thimbles, clay pipes and pottery etc dating to the late 17th to early 18th centuries indicate human occupation. The building on the south side of the road has survived less well and may overlie an earlier structure showing as a series of stakeholes. The paucity of finds in this area seem to indicate a non domestic function. The floor is part cobbled. Two 17th century European thalers were found outwith the walls here.

T Ward 1990

A sixth season in 1991 completed the two buildings reported in 1990. The long building on the N side of a well-made cobbled road measures 20.5m by 6.0m overall.

This has a room of 7.0m by 3.6m which has a barn with an enclosed drain and then subsequently used as a house. The building on the south side of the road was 17.5m by 7.0m overall and has been shown to be a house/byre. Both of these buildings have been used throughout the late-17th to mid-18th centuries and have been subject to continuous modifications internally, being used as byres, stores and houses. This is clear by the numerous features such as drains, hearths and layers of floors which are composed predominantly of burnt layers. Patches of woven fabric have been retrieved from these floors. The buildings had walls with stone and clay bonding as well as turf walls. The range of finds indicate the period and function of the various phases. A large quantity of clay pipe bowls will help to refine the dating of features etc. Work on this site is to continue. The site will now be restored. The two thalers reported in 1990 are now shown to have been inside the byre end of a house/byre and not outside as was then thought. The broken top stone of a rotary was found to hav been reused as a floor cobble in one building.

T Ward 1991.

A metal detecting sweep of all areas within and surrounding the farm complex was carried out in 1989 as part of the overall enquiry here.

All objects were retrieved including modern items. A total of 95 articles were found, including a range of coins, buckles, lead weights and gun shot and iron horse shoes. The majority of the finds are dated to the 17th and 18th centuries. All items are accurately recorded and plotted on the site plans.

The buildings to the south of the main house are completely excavated. One byre had been adapted for use as a blacksmith workshop, the actual anvil was retrieved (early 18th century). The other main byre has an earlier floor surface beneath the present one, the sequence being early 17th century followed by dump material containing pipe bowls of 1680-1710, followed by the existing byre remains. A trench was cut on the E side of the main house to expose the basal course of the wall, to facilitate restoration of the bastle house and gives an additional 1 metre of height to the wall. A further four Elizabeth I sixpences from a hoard were found, the latest being 1593.

Cuurent work is exposing yet another byre, (the fourth), with typical central grip or drainage channel.

T Ward 1992

A seventh season has revealed the ground floor plans of a further three buildings. The stone footings of walls with clay bonding are similar to the other buildings on site. Similarly, these buildings have been used and modified from byres to houses, the position of hearths, drains and entrances are evident. New types of features are noted in the form of cruck slots in one building which has a room span of 10m by 5m. The roof has been constructed of three pairs of crucks; a set at each end of the room and a central set, making them 5m apart, springing from pads set at ground level and set back into the wall, the timbers appear to have been about 300mm square at ground level. This building appears to have been abandoned in the mid-17th century. In another building consisting of two chambers, one measuring 4m by 4m and the other 10m by 5m, each with its own entrance, evidence for animal stalls has been found in the form of cups cut into the cobbles. The usual range of 17th/18th century objects have been retrieved and include a fine bronze rowel spur and a small onion bottle.

T Ward 1992.

An eighth and final season has resulted in the floor plans of nine buildings being revealed on this fermtoun complex, showing details of their functions as houses and/or byres. Features on these floors are cobbling, hearths, open and covered drainage systems, stalling and feeding arrangements for animals, cruck slots and multiple floor layers. The evidence from finds suggest that all the buildings except X and perhaps Y were used throughout the 17th century and up to the mid 18th century. The large building at X was clearly abandoned by the mid-17th century and may have pre-dated the bastle house.

Post-excavation research is now under way and is expected to take several years. A management scheme is now being set up to consolidate the site for presentation to the public.

T Ward 1993.

The bastle house is shown as unroofed and annotated 'Ruin' and three fields or large enclosures and a sheepfold are depicted on the 1st edition of the 6-inch map (Lanarkshire 1863, sheet L). Four unroofed buildings, three fields and the sheepfold are shown on the current edition of the OS 1:10000 map (1992).

Information from RCAHMS (AKK) 19 September 2000.