Craig Of Boyne

NJ66NW 2 6162 6612

(NJ 6162 6612) Boyne Castle (NR) (Site of)

OS 6" map, Banffshire, 2nd ed., (1904)

The contents of a midden found on the site (and which yielded 1st to 16th century finds) are in the National Museum of Antiquities of Scotland (NMAS).

J Sutherland 1883; Garland 1883.

The castle of the Craig of Boyne stood on a detached limestone rock, rising to a height of 50 feet above the foreshore on the left side of the mouth of the Boyne Burn.

The surface is very uneven and only the grass-grown foundations remain: the remains suggest an Early Norman type of motte or earthwork.

The entrance, a narrow causeway traversing a cross ditch at the neck of the site, is clearly visible, and within it to the left is a masonry-lined pit, 5 feet by 4 feet by about 4 feet deep, which has evidently been vaulted. On the west verge of the rock are some bits of walling and a garderobe vent, built over a slack in the cliff.

W D Simpson 1930; W D Simpson 1938.

The remains of this castle are generally as described above. On the south side of the entrance opposite the stone-lined pit mentioned, a broad earth-and-stone rampart, c.4.0m. wide, runs to the edge of the cliff and abutting onto its north side are the outlines of a rectangular building. North of the entrance along the edge of the cliff are the remains of a range of buildings c.22m long, and on the east side of the area at the cliff edge are the outlines of a building 9.5m X 3.0m. The remains of these buildings are all overgrown with grass with bits of walling showing. The garderobe vent can be seen on the cliff edge c3.5m back from the NW corner of the west range of buildings. Within the area are traces of what are probably other buildings, too vague for survey. Published survey (25") revised.

Revised at 1/2500.

Visited by OS (WDJ) 25 September 1961.

During a fortnight's preliminary excavation by pupils of Banff Academy, some of the neatly-coursed, clay-laid, interior walls of the castle were uncovered, together with some late 14th-early 15th century pottery. The castle was erected probably in the late 12th-early 13th century, and was a stronghold of the Comyns or a vassal of that family.

Further excavations on the site are planned.

L M Maclagan-Wedderburn 1966; Information from 'Excavation at Craig O' Boyne', manuscript, 1966 (L M Maclagan-Wedderburn).

Surface irregularities indicate the presence of further structures, too amorphous to survey, within the site of the castle.

Revised at 1/2500.

Visited by OS (NKB), 14 February 1968.