Saddell Castle
Castle (Medieval), Drain(S) (17th Century) - (18th Century), Midden (17th Century) - (18th Century)
Site Name Saddell Castle
Classification Castle (Medieval), Drain(S) (17th Century) - (18th Century), Midden (17th Century) - (18th Century)
Alternative Name(s) Saddell House Policies
Canmore ID 38867
Site Number NR73SE 2
NGR NR 78906 31545
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/38867
- Council Argyll And Bute
- Parish Saddell And Skipness
- Former Region Strathclyde
- Former District Argyll And Bute
- Former County Argyll
NR73SE 2 78906 31545
(NR 7890 3154) Castle (NR)
OS 6" map, Argyllshire, 2nd ed., (1924)
For (successor and present) Saddell House (NR 79123 31801), see NR73SE 9.
The remains of Saddell Castle, comprising a well-preserved tower-house, built between 1508 and 1512, standing within an extensive complex of later out-buildings which incorporate portions of an original barmkin-wall. The tower-house is four storeys and a garret high, with a crenallated parapet with open angle turrets, with a fifth 'round' projecting midway along the west side. The parapet is interupted by a cap-house on the west side and encloses a crow-stepped, gabled roof. The masonry is harled random rubble with sandstone dressings. The entrance is at ground level in the west wall, and the lintel bears the date 1508. The existing outbuildings are of mainly late 18th to 19th century date, their erection having probably coincided with the removal of the greater part of the original barmkin and any early buildings it may have contained. The NW range incorporates many stones robbed from Saddell Abbey (NR73SE 1) about 1770.
The surviving fragment of barmkin wall is of boulder-rubble masonry with pink sandstone dressings and mesures about 1.4m in thickness and 3.7m in height. It may originally have been somewhat higher. The south face shows traces of a blocked postern-doorway. The original extent of the barmkin is not known, but the enclosure wall is likely to have run SE from the SE angle of the tower, thence returning progressively west, north, east and again south to join the NE angle at a point where tusking protrudes from the tower wall. The property, which first belonged to the Bishop of Argyll but passed to the MacDonalds and finally the Cambells, is now derelict.
RCAHMS 1971, visited 1964.
Saddell Castle is generally as described and planned by RCAHMS (1971). Currently it is being restored by the Landmark Trust. The small building abutting the SE corner of the stable on the RCAHMS plan has been removed.
Surveyed at 1:10 000.
Visited by OS (JB) 25 February 1978.
NR 7890 3154 Site identified as part of a coastal zone assessment survey.
M Cressey, S Badger, 2005.
Castle [NAT]
OS (GIS) MasterMap, June 2010.
Excavation (August 2022)
NR 78914 31536 Six test-pits were hand excavated at Saddell Castle in August 2022. Five were located against the exterior walls of the castle and one within the interior under the southern cellar window. The test-pits were excavated in order to inform and mitigate initial and potential future remedial works to Saddell Castle, which will include the removal of a concrete floor from the basement of the castle and creation of an external drain around the perimeter of the castle.
A series of midden and re-deposited sand and gravel deposits and a lower stone-capped drain were identified below the current concrete floor of the cellar. A large quantity of broken 17th- and 18th-century wine bottles, a small quantity of slipware and part of a metal blade were recovered from these fills. The content of these deposits have the potential to elucidate 17th- and 18th-century castle life. A stone-lined drain, some 0.80m below the current ground surface was identified along the southern castle wall. The remains of a possible stone wall was located just to the N of the castle door; this wall abutted the castle wall and therefore is later in date. On the N side of the castle a mixed layer comprising building rubble and household waste was located under a soft lime concrete floor of the 19th-century barn. On the E side of the castle mixed beach sands and gravels had built up against the castle wall, with no discernible archaeological deposits. On the southern side of the castle a thick deposit of gravel had been used in infill the stable block on top of which a concrete floor had been set. Below the gravel and drain, an organic rich midden/soil containing animal bones was revealed; although the test-pit was excavated down to 0.92m the base of the midden was not reached. The course of a proposed French drain along the W and S elevations of Saddell Castle and a smaller portion of the N elevation trench were hand excavated in advance of their construction. A series of buried deposits of sand and silt mixed with midden-like material were dumped up against the W castle wall. The earliest pottery recovered from the near the base of the castle wall is likely to be 16th-century or earlier in date. The overlying deposits can be tentatively related to documented periods of occupation and rebuilding and repair events of the castle. A well preserved cobble surface was recorded down the length of the castle’s W wall beyond the entrance; this surface appeared to be contemporary with a
stone-lined drain and is tentatively dated to the late 18th century.
Archive: NRHE (intended) Funder: The Landmark Trust
Clare Ellis – Argyll Archaeology
Archaeological Evaluation (June 2022)
NR 78914 31536 Two test-pits were hand excavated within the interior of Saddell Coach House in June 2022, in order to inform and mitigate the conversion of the building into a guest laundry. Prior to the construction of the Coach House the soil had been cleared off the site and a mixture of beach sand and gravel and clasts of shattered bedrock was laid between and over the outcropping bedrock to form a level surface. Concrete strip foundations/joists which were orientated E/W were then constructed on this infill and the Coach House walls subsequently built on the outer edge of these. A wooden floor, the remains of which was observed in one of the test-pits, was then constructed over the concrete joists, though there may have been a cobbled surface at the entrance. Later this wooden floor was removed and a beach gravel base laid and sealed by a concreted floor.
Archive: NRHE (intended)
Funder: The Landmark Trust
Clare Ellis – Argyll Archaeology
(Source: DES Volume 23)
