Kilspindie

Kilspindie Farmhouse, at NO 2191 2577, occupies the site of a castle of which there are no remains, though some of the stones are built into Kilspindie Church. Two portcullis stone weights are preserved at the Manse (Rev Edward Beal, The Manse, Kilspindie). One of the stones built into the church is a sun-dial bearing the date 166- (the last figure is illegible). Another stone that looks as though it could have come from the castle is built into the west end of a farm building at N0 2190 2582. This stone bears a coat of arms and the initials WL. MB.

Visited by OS (RDL), 9 October 1963.

There are no standing remains of the castle which is said to have stood on or close to the site of the 19th-century farmhouse at Kilspindie (NO22NW 71). However, a number of dressed and moulded stones are incorporated in buildings close by. Built into the steading itself (NO 2192 2582), above a door at the WSW end of the S range, there is a dormer pediment bearing an armorial and the initials WL/MB, and at the ENE end of the steading a moulded slab has been re-used as a lintel over the tail-race of a mill lade. Incorporated in an outbuilding adjoining the manse (NO 2194 2569), there are other fragments, including part of one armorial re-used as a jamb, and another, much effaced, in the interior. Other stones and a sundial are incorporated in the fabric of the church (NO22NW 43) and, although these need not have come from the castle, as a group they would point to the presence of a building or buildings of late 16th- or 17th-century date. Melville (Melville 1939) records that the remains of the castle, comprising a stone stair and some thick walls, were taken down and used in the erection of the new farm buildings, and also that 'it is not many years since the present tenant dug up a part of the old causeway, which had originally been laid in the shape of a V'. He also notes a stone which had been 'used for a spout for water running beside the church gate', but on the date of visit this was not located. Incorporated in the garage wall at the manse there is a stone which bears a low circular boss; Melville suggested that it was probably a prehistoric carving, but it seems to be natural.

Visited by RCAHMS (IMS, PC), 20 June 1989.