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Archaeology Notes

Event ID 732790

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/732790

NY49NE 4 49321 95995

(NY 4932 9599) CHAPEL (NR) (Remains of)

(NY 4933 9597) COUT O' KIELDER'S GRAVE (NR)

OS 6" map (1916-49)

Chapel and Earthwork, Hermitage. Of the chapel of Hermitage, situated on the left bank of Hermitage Water about 400 yds. W of Hermitage Castle (RCAHMS 1956 no. 63 ), very little was visible when, in 1926, HM Office of Works began to excavate it; but the outline of the structure has now been exposed and its remains have been secured against further decay.

It stands within a graveyard which overlies and is enclosed by the E part of an earthwork obviously of earlier date, and is oblong on plan, measuring 18 ft. 3 in. from N to S by 45 ft. 6 in. from E to W within walls 3 ft. thick.

The side walls, which stand to a maximum height of 5 ft. at the NW corner, are divided into five bays of buttresses, each gable having a similar buttress at either end. There is no structural division between nave and chancel, but the E end, for a length of 11 ft. 3 in. is three steps higher than the remainder of the chamber. The masonry is ashlar, fairly cubical, built in courses 11 in. high; a chamfered base-course with a projection of 5 in. runs round the building, returning round each buttress. The entrance, now represented by a gap in the S wall in the second bay from the W, is the only opening traceable; but a number of window-rybats, chamfered outside, splayed back on the inner side and grooved for fixed glazing, were recovered during the excavation, and some of these evidently formed part of a large E window. Their detail, when considered with the plan, suggests a 14th-century date for the building.

The foiled head of a niche for a piscina, together with two sections of bold dog-tooth enrichment, all presumed to have come from the chapel, have been inserted above the entrance to the coach-house of the modern mansion of Hermitage.

TOMBSTONES. To the 14th century may also be attributed the upper part of a mediaeval tombstone found in the chapel and now transferred to Hermitage Castle. This has a present length of 1 ft. 7 in. and is 13 in. wide at the top and 12 in. at the bottom; the margin is chamfered. It has borne a cross with a small sword on the sinister side, and enough of the cross-shaft is left to show a bulbous necking a little below the cross-head. The cross-head includes four impinging pennanular rings with lobated ends, each pair being linked at thir junction by a cross-bar, a spear- or leaf-shaped member closing the re-entrants.

Between the S wall of the graveyard and the river bank lies "Cout o' Kielder's Grave", a low mound running N and S and measuring 11 ft. 9 in. in length and 3 ft. in breadth. A fragment of a mediaeval tombstone marks one end and part of a later tombstone the other. This may be the grave of Sir Richard Knout (Knut), of Kielder in Tynedale, Sheriff of Northumberland, who died between 1289 and 1291. (J Bain 1884)

EARTHWORKS. The earthworks, which comprise two divisions, rest their S side on the river bank. To the N of them lie some enclosed fields and hollow tracks.

The E division of the earthworks is roughly square, and only a little larger than the graveyard that it now encloses. Its innermost defence consists of a bank which runs all round the site, and on the side towards the river this forms the only protection. Along the other three sides, however, outside this, there runs a wide ditch with another bank outside it, and on N and W a narrower ditch outside this bank again.

To the W, with its E side flanking this narrower ditch, lies the other main division, an oblong enclosure defined on W, N, and E by a bank, but with its S side open. The N and W banks have borrow-ditches. The area of this enclosure is rather less than one acre, and it contains some indefinite mounds such as might cover the ruins of buildings.

The bank that rises beyond the narrow ditch on the N of the fortified site is probably a boundary dyke forming part of the field enclosures of which mention has been made above; at its E end it turns N and defines, with another parallel bank, a hollow way which runs for some 60 yds. from the NE corner of the defences to join an old roadway - itself hollowed in this part to resemble a ditch - which flanks the N side of the enclosed ground. This old road can be observed descending the left bank of the river some 350 yds. to the W, swinging uphill to avoid the earthworks and enclosed fields, and running on towards the E until obliterated in the improved land surrounding Hermitage Castle.

It is tempting, in view of the obviously defensive character of the E division of the earthworks, to interpret this as the Hermitage Castle of 1244 (RCAHMS 1956 p.82) with the W one as its dependence or outer bailey; on the other hand, its defences seem altogether too slight for an important castle of this period. Alternatively, the E division, taken by itself, bears a close resemblance to a "homestead moat" (RCAHMS 1956 p.47), a form of construction for which a central date of 1200 has been established in the south of England. The road and the field-system both appear to be associated with a later occupation of the W division of the earthworks, in which there is some evidence of alteration.

RCAHMS 1956, visited 1931 and 1945

The architecture of the church belongs to the Early Pointed Period (1189-1272) indicating a date for the present building of about 1220, although charters of 1180 and 1204 mention a chapel here. No trace could be found to indicate any rebuilding after the Early Pointed Period.

J P Alison 1901

As described above.

Visited by OS (JLD) 27 September 1960

Possible Early Medieval Ring-work.

Information from E J Talbot TS. 'Mottes'.

This site is listed in an Atlas of Scottish History (McNeill and MacQueen 1996) as a moated site.

Information from RCAHMS (DE) September 1997

People and Organisations

References