Gartness Castle

NS58NW 1 5025 8652.

(NS 5025 8651) Castle (NR) (Site of)

OS 6" map, (1958)

Nothing now remains of Gartness Castle, once the house of John Napier, the inventor of logarithms. It stood on the right bank of the Endrick Water, 1/4 mile SSE of Gartness Bridge. A re-used window lintel in the mill at Gartness, and a stone dated 1574, in the S gable of an adjoining store-house (NS 5019 8665) probably came from the castle. Other stones, at Park of Drumquhassle (NS 482 869) (see NS48NE 12) are also said (Name Book 1860) to have come from the castle.

RCAHMS 1963; Name Book 1860.

A low rectangular mound exists here. It measures 23.0m N-S by 8.0m and is 0.7m high on the N and S, and 0.2m on the W. There is the suggestion of a ditch on the N and S sides of the mound. It is possible that part of the mound to the NE has been destroyed by the river.

No remains of walls of the castle exist in the adjacent field, but three small fragments can be seen in the bank of the river, but may only be an old revetment wall to counteract erosion. A low, almost level square area, 0.2m maximum height, lies immediately to the SW and may represent the site of a courtyard, but the traces are indefinite.

The site is overlooked by high ground to the NW.

The date-stone '1574' is in the wall of an out-building of Gartness Mill, at NS 5019 8665; it appears remarkably well-preserved to have been an original stone.

A lintel stone bearing the date '1684' and the initials 'RG' and 'IS', faintly inscribed on it, lies in the garden of the Mill.

Visited by OS (J L D) 5 April 1957.

There is no longer any trace of the mound described by previous OS field suveyor. No further information.

Visited by OS (B S) 4 December 1973.