Archaeology Notes
Event ID 709373
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Archaeology Notes
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/709373
NT00SW 1 02788 01682
(NT 0278 0168) Kinnelhead Tower (NR) (remains of)
OS 6" map, (1962)
Structure and Incised Cross, Kinnelhead: On the NE shoulder of Peat Hill adjacent to Kinnelhead farm (NT00SW 28) is a ruinous structure of indeterminate date. On the hillside are many outcrops of rock; a cleft in one has been artificially extended and incorporated in a building. This cleft runs approximately N-S; across its N end a gable wall has been erected; there are traces of a similar wall at the S end. A vaulted roof has been thrown across from the rock face on the E to that on the W. There has been at least one other storey above the vault. The building measures 50' (15.2m) N-S x 23'2" (7.1m) E-W; the walls are 4' (1.2m) thick. It is much longer than the usual domestic or domestic-and-defensive building. On the rock to the W of the building is incised a Cross Calvary. It measures 3 1/4" (83mm) across the arms and is 10 1/2" (266mm) high. The workmanship is crude. Taking these points into consideration would suggest an ecclesiastical purpose for the building. Some 34' (10.4m) to the W is an outbuilding running parallel to the main structure. It is built of drystone masonry, some of the stones weighing more than a ton. To the N and E are traces of other buildings.
RCAHMS 1920, visited 1912.
The remains of Kinnelhead are in many respects identical to those of Lochwood (NY09NE 8), a peel tower with barmekin surround containing buildings, but more ruinous and crudely built. At both places there is a vaulted basement placed at the corner of a rectangular courtyard round the interior of which are the remains of buildings. If the cross, of a design familiar to the 14th and 15th centuries (M E Kuper 1884) is considered, this may be a church or ecclesiastical structure. Otherwise, it seems probable that the building was occupied at the close of the 16th century by a branch of the Johnstone family.
Trans Dumf Galloway Natur Hist Antiq Soc 1926
The remains at Kinnelhead are generally as described. The main structure is a strongly-built structure measuring 17.0m NE-SW by 7.6m with mortared rubble walls 1.7m thick. The S gable remains almost entire containing two narrow splayed windows near the present ground level. The walls are in a dilapidated condition and rise little above the surrounding ground level, except for the SW gable. Lying parallel to this structure and c. 10.0m NW of it are the scant remains of a similar building. The walls, where standing, are 1.0m high.
A rectangular enclosure measuring 20.0m x 21.0m forms a courtyard on the NE side of the buildings. This wall is built of massive stones and measures 1.7m wide by 1.0m high.
Lying c. 12.0m E of the NE angle of the courtyard are the foundations of a small square building which measured 7.0m by 6.5m.
To the W of the main building, on a sloping rock face, is the small incised Latin cross described earlier.
The dimensions and situation of this building and its contemporaries are not suggestive of a tower, but the massive construction of its walls and the presence of splayed windows suggest a possible 16th c. date for the structure, and would be in keeping with strongholds of this period.
Visited by OS (W D J) 3 September 1959
Revisited. Site confirmed
Surveyed at 1:2500.
Visited by OS (D W R) 20 September 1973
