Horse Park, Sundaywell

NX88SW 18 8090 8467.

The overgrown remains of a rectangular building are situated on a terrace to the NNW of Sundaywell. The building measures 8.7m from E to W by 4.2m transversely within stone footings 1m in thickness and 0.6m in height. The entrance may be on the S where there may also be the denuded footings of a second, possibly earlier, building. There is a trapezoidal enclosure on the N side of the building, partly levelled into the slope on the N side.

(Nith 78)

Visited by RCAHMS (DCC) 29 August 1991.

NX 808 846. Excavation in 1995 of a site surveyed in 1991 revealed two buildings with distinct characteristics. Building A, orientated E-W, showed domestic occupation of the late 17th and 18th centuries (ceramic assemblage). It probably had a wooden floor. The walls, 1m thick at the base, were well-built and capable of supporting substantial roof timbers. No evidence was found of wall plates or pads for cruck construction and there was no evidence of roof slates. Fragments of window glass also suggested a building of some quality. The gable-end free-stone fireplace was particularly well-built, reinforcing the interpretation of this building as a dwelling house.

Building B, squarer in plan and less well-constructed, lay up against the first building but was not abutted onto it. This building lay N-S, with a 2m entrance on the E side. The flag flooring, of this and the area in front of it, made from the flat edges of otherwise irregular boulders, suggests a stable or milking parlour where there was the necessity for a hard-wearing surface that could withstand the pressure of large animals? hooves.

Sponsors: Henry and Laura Gough-Cooper.

C J Crowe 1998.