Craigievern
Barmkin (Medieval)(Possible), Broch (Iron Age)(Possible)
Site Name Craigievern
Classification Barmkin (Medieval)(Possible), Broch (Iron Age)(Possible)
Canmore ID 43476
Site Number NS49SE 3
NGR NS 49505 90255
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/43476
- Council Stirling
- Parish Drymen
- Former Region Central
- Former District Stirling
- Former County Stirlingshire
NS49SE 3 4950 9025.
Barmkin, Craignairn: 495 902. This structure, presumably a barmkin, consists of a ruinous and much robbed grass-grown stone wall, measuring from 8-10ft thick and enclosing an area approx. 75ft in diameter which contains numerous stony heaps. A stone field dyke and a wire fence cross this area from E-W. The site, visited in 1954, is on the highest point of a low ridge and west of the Altquhur Burn and it is natural to associate these wasted remains with 'Cragy vairn Castell' recorded by Macfarlane (1906-8). (Although noted in RCAHMS Selkirk 1957 p.XVIII - Marginal Lands, as being planned there is no plan at the Royal Commission.)
RCAHMS 1963.
(NS 4950 9025). This barmkin, possibly associated with Cragy Vairn Castle, is as described above. The entrance, 4.0m wide, is in the south; in the interior there are the amorphous remains of a building and several grass-covered heaps of stones.
Surveyed at 1/2500.
Visited by OS (R D) 10 March 1965.
What is probably a broch is situated on a low steep-sided ridge forming the S side of the gully of an unnamed tributary of the Altquhur Burn. It has been reduced to little more than a low mound of rubble, but there are traces of a broad robber-trench marking the line of the wall around the S arc. The rubble choking the interior is also scarred with quarry pits.
Visited by RCAHMS (SDB, SPH) 23 July 1999
Reference (1957)
This site is noted in the ‘List of monuments discovered during the survey of marginal land (1951-5)’ (RCAHMS 1957, xiv-xviii).
Information from RCAHMS (GFG), 24 October 2012.
Field Visit (November 1978)
Craigievern NS 495 902 NS49SE 3
A low mound of rubble situated on the edge of a stream gully S of Craigievern may be the remains of a broch. The mound measures about 23m in diameter and its surface is scarred by quarry-pits.
RCAHMS 1979, visited November 1978
RCAMS 1963, pp. 260-1, no. 21 0
Publication Account (2007)
NS49 1 CRAIGIEVERN
NS/4950 9025
This probable broch or medieval barmkin in Drymen, standing on the highest point of a low ridge and west of the Altquhur Burn, was originally thought to be a barmkin associated with Craigy Vairn Castle [1] but was later re-identified [3]. In 1963 it consisted of a ruinous and much robbed grass-grown stone wall, measuring from 2.4m - 3.0m (8 - 10 ft) thick and enclosing an area approx. 22.9m (75 ft) in diameter which contains numerous stony heaps [2]. The entrance, 4.0m wide, is in the south [1]. By 1978 it was described as a low mound of rubble which might be the remains of a broch [3] and another visit by the RCAHMS in 1999 supported this view [1].
Sources: 1. NMRS site no. NS 49 SE 3: 2. RCAHMS 1963, vol. 1, 260, no. 210: 3. RCAHMS 1979b, 21, no. 152.
E W MacKie 2007
