Archaeology Notes

Event ID 712783

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/712783

NT27NE 24 2636 7578.

(NT 2636 7578) Pilrig House (NAT) (1638)

OS 6"map, Edinburghshire, 1st ed., (1853)

The lands of Pilrig were acquired in 1623 by Gilbert Kirkwood from the Monypenny family, and when he built Pilrig House, he probably incorporated in it some part of an earlier building. There are traces of alteration in the basement which cannot be accounted for otherwise. Apart from a modern addition to the north, the house, which is still occupied and in good preservation, is L-shaped on plan and three storeys, high. The re-entrant angle, now covered by a modern addition, opens to the NE and contains a stair tower. The masonry is harled rubble,the gables crow-stepped and the roof has been renewed.

Russell (1938) suggests from the strength and thickness of the basement walls, that the remains of a peel tower (whence the name "Pilrig" ie. peel ridge) are incorporated in Pilrig House.

J Russell 1938; RCAHMS 1951.

Pilrig House is now roofless, but appears to be undergoing restoration. It is otherwise as described.

Visited by OS 27 November 1975.