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Field Visit
Date 29 January 1992
Event ID 740374
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/740374
NX88NW 51 8427 8821
This settlement, which occupies a terrace on the SW side of a rock-strewn hill, comprises a possible hall-house, a kiln, a tower and two later farmsteads. A drystone dyke which crosses the site from E-W, overlies a demolished building and abuts another which was depicted as roofed on the 1st edition of the OS 6-inch map, (Dumfriesshire, 1860, sheet XL).
The possible hall-house, which survives largely as a building-platform, is likely to be the earliest structure on the site, having been demolished, particularly at the W end, to make way for the tower. It measures about 13.7m from ENE to WSW by 4.8m transversely within rubble-faced walls about 1.2m in thickness and, where best preserved at the E end, up to 1.75m in height.
The tower, which is set into the slope at a lower level than the hall-house but occupies the same axis, measures 6.4m in length by 3.6m in breadth within rubble-faced walls 1.5m in thickness and 0.6m in height and there is an entrance in the middle of the SSE side. The tower appears to have been slighted to make way for the construction of a building at its SE corner which forms part of the later farmstead.
The farmstead comprises three buildings ranged around a yard to the S and W of the tower. The main building occupies the W side of the yard and comprises a large single cell structure with a secondary wing on the NNW end. It measures 14.9m from NNW to SSE by 4m transversely within rubble-faced walls 0.8m in thickness and 0.8m in height with opposed entrances in the sides towards the SSE end. A partition has been inserted to the N of the entrances, and there is a recess in the ENE wall a short distance to the NNW. The wing to the NNW measures 8.3m in length by 4.5m in breadth within rubble-faced walls 0.6m in thickness and 0.3m in height and is partially covered by a spread of tiles and rubble. On the E side of the yard, the building that abuts the tower measures 7.3m from N-S by 3.7m transversely within rubble-faced walls 0.9m in thickness and up to 0.5m in height with an entrance in the middle of the W side. A small single-compartment building, which lies a short distance to the S of the main building and on the same axis, has been reduced to its footings prior to the construction of the drystone dyke.
Two other buildings and an enclosure, which form a later farmstead, lie to the S of the wall that crosses the site. The W building measures 10.9m from NNW to SSE by 4.8m transversely within rubble-faced walls 0.55m thick and there is an entrance in the SW side. The N end of the building has been incorporated into the field wall and stands to a height of 1m, elsewhere it has been reduced to footings and measures about 9.3m in length by 3.6m in breadth within rubble-faced walled 0.8m in thickness and up to 0.8m in height. The other building, aligned on the same axis, lies to the E and measures about 9.3m in length by 3.6m in breadth within rubble-faced walls 0.8m in thickness and up to 0.4m in height, its SSE end having been robbed. There is an enclosure to the E. A kiln is built into the slope to the N of the Hall-house; it measures about 3.5m in diameter by 0.7m in depth with an opening for a flue in the SW side.
The settlement forms part of a scattered group of medieval and later buildings at Auchenfedrick, including a large kiln-barn 150m to the E (NX88NW 56) and a second tower and long-building 200m to the ESE (NX88NW 105).
(Nith92 224-232)
Visited by RCAHMS (PJD) 29 January 1992
