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Buittle Place

Tower House (Medieval)

Site Name Buittle Place

Classification Tower House (Medieval)

Alternative Name(s) Buittle Castle; Old Buittle Tower

Canmore ID 64983

Site Number NX86SW 10

NGR NX 81817 61652

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/64983

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Digital Images

Oblique aerial view of Buittle Place Tower House, looking to the N.
Oblique aerial view of Buittle Place Tower House, looking to the N.Oblique aerial view of Buittle Castle and Buittle Place Tower House, looking to the SSE.Oblique aerial view of Buittle Place Tower House and Buittle Castle, looking E.Oblique aerial view of Buittle Place Tower House, looking WNW.Oblique aerial view of Buittle Place Tower House, looking SW.Buittle Place, NX86SW 10, Ordnance Survey index card, VersoOblique aerial view of Buittle Castle and Buittle Place Tower House, looking to the SE.Oblique aerial view of Buittle Place Tower House, looking NE.Oblique aerial view of Buittle Castle and Buittle Place Tower House, looking to the E.Oblique aerial view of Buittle Place Tower House, looking WSW.Oblique aerial view of Buittle Place Tower House, looking SE.View from W.Oblique aerial view of Buittle Castle and Buittle Place Tower House, looking to the WSW.Oblique aerial view of Buittle Place Tower House, looking ESE.Oblique aerial view of Buittle Place Tower House, looking NNE.Oblique aerial view of Buittle Place Tower House, looking N.Oblique aerial view of Buittle Place Tower House, looking W.Oblique aerial view.Oblique aerial view.Buittle Place, NX86SW 10, Ordnance Survey index card, RectoOblique aerial view of Buittle Place Tower House, looking to the ENE.Oblique aerial view of Buittle Place Tower House, looking ESE.Buittle Place, NX86SW 10, Ordnance Survey index card, RectoOblique aerial view of Buittle Place Tower House, looking to the ESE.Oblique aerial view of Buittle Place Tower House, looking to the NNE.Oblique aerial view of Buittle Place Tower House, looking to the WNW.Oblique aerial view of Buittle Place Tower House, looking NW.Oblique aerial view of Buittle Place Tower House, looking to the E.Oblique aerial view of Buittle Place Tower House, looking to the NW.Oblique aerial view of Buittle Place Tower House, looking to the W.Oblique aerial view of Buittle Place Tower House, looking S.Buittle Place, NX86SW 10, Ordnance Survey index card, Recto

Administrative Areas

  • Council Dumfries And Galloway
  • Parish Buittle
  • Former Region Dumfries And Galloway
  • Former District Stewartry
  • Former County Kirkcudbrightshire

Archaeology Notes

NX86SW 10 81834 61699

Tower [NAT]

OS (GIS) MasterMap, August 2009.

See also NX86SW 1 and NX86SW 6.

A probably late - 16th century L-shaped tower stands among the farm buildings of Buittle Place. Although ruinous in 1790 it has since been restored. The exterior of the building is harled and whitewashed.

RCAHMS 1914

The house is three storeys high and is surrounded by a ditch with the exception of that part against the Water of Urr which was defended by a rampart.

Name Book 1847

NX 8181 6165. This tower, or fortified house, is as described above. It is in a good state of repair and is in occupation as the farm-house. Part of the ditch which formerly surrounded the house can be seen to the north of the farm steading running north-east, then east to the Water of Urr. This ditch is part of the triangular court of Buittle Castle (NX86SW 6).

No trace was seen of the rampart against the Water of Urr, mentioned by ONB but this is probably the east scarp of the triangular court of Buittle Castle.

Visited by OS (WDJ) 14 July 1969

This ongoing excavation (cf DES 1995, 21), now in its sixth season and staffed entirely by volunteers, has uncovered much artefactual and some settlement evidence for the presence of early man in Galloway in the form of Mesolithic, Neolithic/Early Bronze Age, Iron Age and Roman occupation levels.

Further evidence of the existence of the medieval Royal Burgh of Botel (1323/24) has been uncovered. The post-holes of both round and rectangular timber buildings have been excavated as well as additional building evidence in the form of stables set in behind the timber palisaded defences on the S and E defensive perimeters of the site. Evidence of bronze casting and associated metalworking was found. Artefacts recovered include a Papal Bulla of Pope Honorious IV (1285-87), bronze jewellery and clothing accessories.

The remains of a building with stone foundations has been uncovered; above it was a later hearth and below it a Neolithic pasture level. From the immediate vicinity of this building, artefactual evidence in the form of bronze buckles, a seal matrix, a coin of Edward III dated to 1356-61, part of a wooden sword scabbard covered with a fine layer of copper, and items of domestic use, date this construction to the mid-14th-century era when (King) Edward Balliol (1332-56) was known to be in residence in Botel Castle after 1346.

A large domestic hearth has been uncovered in one trench with a soakaway running along its length, and from this 131 large sherds of fire-blackened, yellow-green glazed pottery have been excavated. In the immediate vicinity of this hearth a pit and a sump have been found.

An area of prehistoric pasture land has yielded a number of lithics, and there is post-hole and pottery evidence of an early roundhouse on this level.

In advance of the construction of a riverside walk, excavations have started in the fosse to the N of the bailey and have yielded evidence of 13th-century construction of two stone walls and a massive buttress which could have formed the base for a drawbridge or gateway leading from the S bailey to a smaller N one which could have been an animal pend.

A Penman 1996.

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