Archaeology Notes

Event ID 718526

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/718526

NT57SE 58 59732 70687

See also NT57SE 5.00.

(NT 59732 70687) Dovecot (NR)

OS 6" map (1969)

Dovecot, Nunraw: This 16th century beehive type dovecot stands 50 yds N of Nunraw (NT57SE 8). It is 57ft 3ins in circumference near the ground, setting back in stages like a pagoda, and surmounted by a stone glover. The walls are 5ft thick at ground level, built in four stages, the first and second stage being of random rubble and the third and fourth stages of dressed stone; there are four string courses. It has a single door and window. Entry for the pigeons is by the glover and by 24 entry holes, cut in a line in the wall, with a broad stone ledge. There are said to be 450 stone nests; the dovecot is in use as a store. Probably this was once a typical beehive, and the domed roof has collapsed and been replaced by the upper stages of masonry (D C Bailey and M C Tindall 1963).

RCAHMS 1924, visited 1919; J Whitaker 1938; C McWilliam 1978