Kirkhope

NT13SE 5 1940 3070.

(NT 1940 3070) Near the SW corner of a walled enclosure on the left bank of the Newholm Hope Burn, there may be seen the foundations of buildings and associated enclosures, together with a number of scooped platforms and terraces. The character of these remains is best appreciated by reference to the site plan. (See RCAHMS 1967 plan, fig.260).

The most considerable member of the group, building A, stands about 100' SW of the memorial enclosure and "Font Stone" described on NT13SE 2. Trial trenches cut in 1962 indicated that it measures 26' NW-SE x 17'6" SW-NE over 3'6" thick walls. A few yards NE of 'A', and immediately below the memorial enclosure, is a sub- rectangular enclosure, c 100' SW-NE x c 40', standing on a broad terrace. This enclosure apparently comprises two main divisions, and within the SW part there can be seen what may be the foundations of a small rectangular building 'B', measuring up to 25' SW - NE x c 15'. From the E corner of the enclosure a wall runs E. towards the Hewholm Hope Burn. An old roadway, now a grass-grown track, crosses the settlement from W - E, and near 'A', it is intersected by a wall which runs S to the burn. On the hillside immediately above 'A' and 'B' are a number of small scooped platforms and terraces, while on the SW side of the enclosure wall, outwith the plan, are traces of another terrace, and of a wall, the latter running down the hillside from NW - SE.

This is the traditional site of St. Gordian's Kirk, of which Pennecuik wrote in 1715, (A Pennecuik 1815) "there is nothing now to be seen but the rubbish and ruins", and to which Armstrong (M J Armstrong 1775), alluded in 1775 as "the scarce discernable remains of St Gorgham's Chapel". In view of the discovery of an inscribed stone of Early Christian date (NT13SE 3) in the immediate vicinity, it is possible that the sacred associations of the site are of very long standing, while the probability of a church or chapel having stood hereabouts in pre-Reformation times is increased by the neighbouring place-name "Kirkhope" and, perhaps, by the "Kirksted" of 1315. Moreover Walker (J R Walker 1887), notes a font (not the Font Stone) at this site in 1887, though this was not seen in 1957. On the other hand, in view of the strong contrary case made out by Buchan (J W Buchan and H Paton 1927) it is impossible to believe that the building in question was ever Manor parish church, notwithstanding the statement to that effect in the Statistical Account (OSA 1792). There is also evidence for the former existence of a fortified house or tower in this neighbourhood, and Blaeu (J Blaeu 1654) shows the site as occupied by a secular rather than an ecclesiastical building.

In view of their orientations, neither of the two buildings of which traces are now recognisable seems likely to have been a chapel, but the plan and dimensions of building "A" strongly suggest that it should be identified as a small tower of 16th century date. The conflicting theories regarding the nature of the site are unlikely to be resolved without large-scale excavation, but on the evidence now available it seems likely that the existing remains are those of a tower-house with associated structures. If so, the adjacent terraces can perhaps be identified as garden terraces, similar to those found at Neidpath Castle.

RCAHMS 1967, visited 1962.

These remains are generally as described and are similar to those of other towers in the area.

Resurveyed at 1:2500.

Visited by OS(EGC) 26 June 1961 and (BS) 4 October 1974.