Archaeology Notes

Event ID 714251

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/714251

NT29SE 11 29068 92489

(NT 2907 9249) Castle (NR) (In Ruins)

OS 6" map (1938)

Ravenscraig Castle, founded in AD 1460 by James II, is an imposing ruin on a rocky promontory. It is remarkable both for the beauty of its ashlar masonry and also because it is perhaps the first British castle to be systematically designed for defence by firearms and against cannon fire.

D MacGibbon and T Ross 1887; RCAHMS 1933; W D Simpson 1938; V G Childe and W D Simpson 1961

The remains of this massive, strongly built castle are neglected and covered with vegetation; but the walls are in a fair state of preservation. The outbuildings in the south are in poor, fragmentary condition. The ditch against the north wall is partly filled in.

Visited by OS (JLD) 4 October 1954

Site recorded by Maritime Fife during the Coastal Assessment Survey for Historic Scotland, Kincardine to Fife Ness 1996