Ardwell

NX14NW 1 10714 45506

(NX 1070 4550) Ardwell Mote (NR)

OS 1:10000 map (1977)

This motte (R W Feachem 1956) consists of a mound, c.120' in diameter at base, rising 20' - 25' as the ground slopes away on the W, and some 70' in diameter across its flat summit. It is surrounded by a 23' wide ditch, through which there is an opening to the W. The remains of a rampart, which may indicate the position of a base court, run along the edge of the bank towards the N.

RCAHMS 1912, visited 1911

Ardwell Mote (name confirmed) is generally as described although the ditch on the west has been destroyed by cultivation. Name confirmed. There are no indications of a base court.

Revised at 25".

Visited by OS (RD) 8 September 1970

This motte is prominently situated on the edge of the degraded cliffline 450m E or Ardwell House. It stands to a height of 7m and its level summit is 21m in diameter. At the base of the motte on the N and S there is a ditch (1 0m broad and 2.7m deep), while 24m to the S a bank (10m long, 4.5m thick and 1m high) accompanied by an external ditch (5.6m broad and 1m deep) extends westwards from the edge of the cliffline.

Name Book; R W Feachem 1956; G Stell 1972; RCAHMS 1912; 1985, visited October 1984