Rockfield Farm, Little Tarrel Castle
Tower House (Medieval)
Site Name Rockfield Farm, Little Tarrel Castle
Classification Tower House (Medieval)
Alternative Name(s) Rockfield Castle
Canmore ID 15634
Site Number NH98SW 11
NGR NH 91054 81951
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/15634
- Council Highland
- Parish Tarbat
- Former Region Highland
- Former District Ross And Cromarty
- Former County Ross And Cromarty
NH98SW 11 91054 81951
Little Tarrel is a small, recently-restored L-plan house, originally built in the mid 16th century; an inscription beneath a first-floor window gives the date 155- ?. Reid (1894) assumes that the missing digit is a 9 (Name Book, however, gives 1550). The building was subsequently sub-divided and modified on more than one occasion; an external forestair was introduced and part of the ground floor was set aside for farming purposes, an alteration that involved the removal of a vault and of an internal stair in an area that later collapsed; but much of the orginal detailing still survives, most notably in the vaulted kitchen and the first-floor chamber above it in the E wing.
(See Stell 1986 for plans.)
Orig Paroch Scot 1855; Name Book 1872; F N Reid 1894; G Stell 1986.
Field Visit (September 1977)
Little Tarrel Castle NH 910 819 NH98SW 11
This L-shaped tower-house, also known as Rockfield, is in poor condition. Most of it probably dates from the 17th century but it may incorporate earlier work.
RCAHMS 1979, visited September 1977
(Tranter 1962-70, v, 164-50
