Daer Resevoir, Kirkhope Tower

NS90NE 1 9675 0651

(NS 9675 0651) Peel (NR) (Remains of)

OS 6"map, 1st ed., Lanarkshire, (1863), sheet no. liii

OS 6"map, 2nd ed., Lanarkshire, (1912)

A tower near the farmhouse of Kirkhope appears to have been a place of considerable strength. It measures about 20ft square.

Name Book 1859

At this point are the remains of a square structure of mortared masonry covered with earth and grass, and now measuring 8.0m x 7.0m x 2.0m high, the longer axis being N-S. On the south a piece of the face of the wall is exposed showing uncoursed masonry. The structure is defended on the east by the river and seems to have been a tower. It will be covered by the water of the Daer Reservoir in a year.

Visited by OS (W W) 14 July 1955

No vestiges of this peel now exist. The site lies under the waters of the Daer Reservoir.

Visited by OS (J L D) 24 July 1959

NS 9676 0651 Bastle house The remains of Kirkhope Tower were partially excavated to determine the architectural details and ground floor plan. The building has lime-mortared random rubble walls measuring 1.2m thick, vault springing at 1.7m above the gravel floor, byre drain in basement 0.8m wide, roll moulded window and door frames, projecting stair turret on N wall. Dumfriesshire sandstone was used to construct the doorways and stair newel. The finds indicated abandonment by the 18th century. Site now interpreted as a bastle house, on the grounds of land tenure and the similarities with other recently excavated buildings in the area.

Full interim report deposited with NMRS.

Sponsors: Biggar Museum Trust, Lanark & District Archaeological Society

T Ward 1995

Evidence of further buildings of this period were noted, but not fully recorded, in 2001, during another period of low water level in the reservoir. These are at Kirkhope Cleuch to the N, where wall footings and sherds of green glaze pottery were found, and about 100m S of the bastle building, where a cobbled floor surface with an open drain was noted. These will be examined further and recorded when there is low water again.

Recorded in draft of forthcoming report, History of the Daer Valley, South Lanarkshire.

Biggar Museum Trust, T Ward 2002; NMRS MS 1774, 32.