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Mains Of Garten
Motte (Medieval)
Site Name Mains Of Garten
Classification Motte (Medieval)
Alternative Name(s) Petriny Motte; Petrini Motte; Barns Motte
Canmore ID 150888
Site Number NH92SE 55
NGR NH 9649 2015
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/150888
- Council Highland
- Parish Abernethy And Kincardine
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Badenoch And Strathspey
- Former County Inverness-shire
NH92SE 55 9649 2015
This monument comprises the remains of a motte, the site of a small medieval timber castle, with traces of buildings visible on its summit. The motte lies at the edge of a natural terrace above a flood plain of the River Spey. The summit measures approximately 50m E-W by 30m. The motte was originally surrounded by a water-filled moat which, although now dry, is still clearly visible to the east. The motte has been revetted by dry stone walling around its base with a revetted entrance ramp to the south.
The motte is close by the farm of Mains of Garten and, from the 19th century, has been encroached upon from the south. On the surface of the motte can still be seen the footings of three buildings, one of which contains the bowl of a corn kiln. These buildings are more likely to be associated with the post-medieval use of the site, but may overlie earlier remains.
Information from Historic Scotland, scheduling document dated 18 August 1999.
Field Visit (1996 - 2003)
Russell Coleman managed an Historic Scotland funded project to record medieval moated sites in Scotland. Gazetteers were produced for each regional council area between 1996 and 2002 with an uncompleted overall review in 2002-03. The results of the first year of the project were published in Tayside and Fife Archaeological Journal, Volume 3 (1997).
External Reference (2011)
Mr Wm Grant was brought up on this farm and recalls playing on the mound, including digging a pit to shoot duck where he uncovered 2 quernstones. He also remembers when the moat water continuously encircled the site. It was fed at the south side by an artificial open stream coming from a lochan lying south of the B970, and was drained by a sluice running the water down into boggy ground and eventually into the Spey. The feeding lochan is now drained and an underground pipe carries its water across fields to the west.
The top of the mound is largely a flat grassy surface, but evidence of stone footings underneath are just visible. On the east side there are the footings and depth of a rectilinear stone structure used as a corn-kiln; the midway flue passageway is just visible as is the neat bowl-shaped stonework of the kiln itself. To the south a section of the mound appears to be scooped away, and Wm. Grant stated that a horse-mill/horse-gang was located there, and that until being unsafe in recent times there also remained the last of a stone building with evidence of connecting drive metal shaft from the horse-gang (the building and horse-gang are depicted on the first edition OS map).
The site has a splendid field of vision, across, up and down the Spey valley several miles in each direction.
The motte is depicted on an old estate map from the 1770s, now in the National Archives of Scotland (GB234, RHP3964/1/33, Plan of Davoch of Gertinmore). The inscription on the map was previously thought to be Petriny (leading to erroneous placename for this site), but Morag Fyfe of the National Archives of Scotland interpreted it as 'Barns', showing that at this time the site had already been incorporated into the farm. The first edition OS map also shows buildings on the site, as well as the horse-gang.
To the south of the mound until the early 20th century there was a prosperous walled kitchen-garden, with a well, and a huge timber-constructed barn, since demolished.
Information from John Davison, ARCH Community Timeline Course, 2011
Measured Survey (4 December 2012 - 5 December 2012)
Mains of Garten motte was surveyed by RCAHMS and members of the local community in 2012 as part of the Cairngorms Communities Heritage Partnership. The survey was undertaken using plane-table and self-reducing alidade to produce a site plan at a scale of 1:500. The plan was later used as the basis of an illustration redrawn in vector graphics software at the same scale.
Visited by RCAHMS (SDB, ATW), 4 - 5 December 2012
