Invermark

This pre-improvement township, excluding the remains in the immediate proximity of the castle and tower of Invermark (NO48SW 6), comprises at least seven buildings, with fragments of as many as six others, spread over an area of about 2ha between the Waters of Lee and Mark, the area of woodland roughly defining the edges of settlement (see plan for the location and orientations of buildings). The structures vary in character and in spatial distribution suggesting specialisation of function that may be explicable in the context of a demesne farm, or castle-town, which is dependent on the adjacent castle.

The focus of the township is on an area of higher ground at the W (NO 4415 8044), where there are the remains of three large buildings, one of which has an attached enclosure. The westernmost (A on the plan) measures 15.8m by 3.5m within the stone footings of a wall 1.1m thick and 0.3m high, comprehensively robbed in places. Separated into two compartments, there are three entrances in the ESE wall. Building B measures 14m by 3.5m within stone footings 1.1m thick and 0.3m high, defined by robber trenches. Set into the slope at the N, the building is separated into two compartments, with entrances to the S. There is a drain outside the SE corner, and a possible midden hollow outside the eastern compartment. Building C, crossed by the modern fence, stands on a well-defined platform. It measures 15.7m by 3.6m within stone footings 1.1m thick and 0.3m high. There may be an addition at the E end, which is lower, but obscured by robbing.

At the NE of this group there is a substantial kiln-barn (D), with what appear to be remains of another immediately to its S. The kiln-barn is set into the slope and measures 8.6m by 5.7m within the stone footings of a wall 0.9m in thickness and 0.3m in height. Set into a platform 0.7m high at the WNW end, the kiln bowl measures 3.5m in diameter by 1m in depth, and here the walls thicken to 1.6m. Another building (D1) appears to represent the remains of a bowl set into the slope, measuring c.5m in diameter, with a platform at its E. To the E of this group, beyond a small pond, there are the remains of two building platforms (E and E1), the best preserved (E1) measuring about 16m by 4m. These may represent an earlier phase of the township, or a different method of construction. Immediately S of the platforms, there are surviving of two successive phases of narrow rig and furrow cultivation.

At the E edge of the township, there is another group comprising two parallel ranges (F and F1) on a knoll with the fragments of at least two, and perhaps three, other buildings in the immediate vicinity. The larger of the two well-preserved buildings (F) measures 13.3m from NE to SW by 2.5m transversely within grass-grown stone footings 0.8m in thickness and 0.2m high. Given the narrowness of these buildings, they may not have been used for accommodation.

At the N edge of the township, 75m from the nearest building, a single building (G), perhaps a barn, stands on a knoll. It measures 14m from E to W by 3.3m internally and is recessed into the knoll at the W end. In places there are the slight remains of a stone wall 0.2m high on the outer face and 1m in thickness. There is a broad entrance visible in the S towards the E end and a slight break in the bank on the N opposite that suggests, in addition to its location on a knoll, this building may have been a threshing barn. Building G stands within a field which preserves the remains of broad rig and furrow cultivation. A substantial stone-lined culvert drains the ground along the S edge of the field.

At the NW edge of the township, on lower boggy ground, there are the fugitive remains of a subrectangular structure (H), possibly earlier and unrelated to the township, that measures about 7m from NW to SE by 5m.

The quarrying in the vicinity (see plan) clearly relates to the construction of the tracks, presumably related to the construction of Invermark Lodge in the mid 19th century (Gifford 2012, 542), which themselves truncate elements of the township.

The Register of the Great Seal in 1588 refers to a fortalice, manor-place, demesne lands and malt-kiln at Invermark (Thomson 1984, No. 1579), and it seems likely that this characterisation includes buildings outwith the tower and enceinte, perhaps explaining the character of the kiln discovered during the survey. While the tower had been abandoned by the mid-18th century, the date of abandonment of the township is less clear, though it too seems to have suffered from the robbing of stone for the manse and church in 1803 (Simpson 1934).

Visited by RCAHMS (GFG, PJD) 28 April to 2 May 2014.

RCAHMS surveyed the area immediately surrounding Invermark Castle on 29 April 2014 with plane-table and self-reducing alidade at a scale of 1:1000.