Field Visit

Date 2 September 1942

Event ID 978418

Category Recording

Type Field Visit

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/978418

RCAHMS Emergency Survey (Archaeology)

Mote, Abington.

The remains consist of a mote and bailey in fairly good preservation. They stand on the W bank of the Clyde about [1km] N of Abington, at a point where the ground slopes gently down from the W to form a low cliff edge of the river. The bailey (cf. Christison [1890]) is a bag-shaped rather than a D-shaped enclosure, with the ends of its rampart resting on the riverbank; the rampart appears to be constructed of gravelly clat obtained from the ditch that lies outside it. This ditch is broad, shallow and marshy except on the S, where it has been deepened by a streamlet towards its debouchmont into the river. There are two principal gaps in the rampart, on NW and SW, but it is uncertain whether either of them is original; the one on the NW, at any rate, has been enlarged in recent times. The mote-hill stands in the S corner of the bailey, its E side descending directly to the river and its other sides being separated from the bailey by a ditch. Neither this ditch nor that of the bailey appears to be rock-cut, and they are probably sunk only to the bottom of the boulder-clay overlying the rock.

Visited by RCAHMS (AG) 2 September 1942.