Housecraigs

NS55NE 33 5685 5602.

On the edge of an arc of crags on the NW summit of Housecraigs is a rectangular mound 18 by 11m on which are fragmentary foundations of walls 1.5 to 2m thick. Ranged against defensive walls along the crags to the north, is part of a two-roomed foundation 15m long, which may have been part timbered such as a range within a curtain wall. Both buildings appear to be contained within a sub-rectangular enclosure 43 by 15m with an annexe to the south and ditches across the north and south ends. The summit of the hill measures 80 by 30m and rock outcrop and uneven ground make interpretation very difficult, but this could be an early castle site, possibly the pre-1300 castle of Mearns although it could be a much later farmstead.

T C Welsh 1973

for further details see MS/1508.

There are no buildings visible on the rough and uneven summit of Housecraigs, nor is there evidence of a defensive wall along the crag that defines its northern side. The only artificial features are a field-bank crowned with a grown-out hedge, which cuts across from E to W to separate the summit from the improved field to the S, and a linear hollow on the cliff-edge on the N at NS 56867 56040. The latter is almost certainly the two-roomed foundation described by Welsh, but it is unlikely to be a building in this position and is probably no more than a shallow quarry entered from the NE. Nothing can be seen of the second building on a rectangular mound described by Welsh, the mound probably being a slightly elevated natural feature on the W part of the summit at NS 56855 56026.

Visited by RCAHMS (SH, IP) 18 June 2007.