Archaeology Notes

Event ID 712592

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/712592

NT17SW 7 1295 7329.

(NT 1295 7329) Hallyards Castle (NR) (remains of)

OS 1:10000 map (1974)

Hallyards Castle, a mid-17th century mansion, is oblong on plan, 46 1/2' N-S by 23', with a circular stair turret projecting in the middle of the E side. The date 1630 appears over one of the windows, which agrees with the style of the house, which was ruinous in 1892 and which was being affected by mining subsidence in 1913, large parts of the walls having fallen.

McCall notes a reference to Hallyards,the manor place of the barony of Liston, in 1579; it is again noted in 1619.

D MacGibbon and T Ross 1892; RCAHMS 1929, visited 1913; H B McCall 1894

The walls of this mansion are now reduced to piles of rubble 0.3m to 1.0m high. The building is situated on a slight promontory,and has apparently been enclosed by a courtyard wall of which only the S and E sides remain. The S side exists as a bank of earth and stones c.7.0m broad and 0.8m high, while the E side appears as a low spread mound c.0.3m high on the inner side and merging with the natural slopes on the outer side. The ditch shown on the OS map round the base of the S end of the promontory is apparently a modern drainage ditch.

Surveyed at 1/2500.

Visited by (WDJ) 15 August 1961.