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Barochan House

Country House (Period Unassigned), Tower House (Medieval)

Site Name Barochan House

Classification Country House (Period Unassigned), Tower House (Medieval)

Canmore ID 43110

Site Number NS46NW 2

NGR NS 4147 6862

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/43110

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
Canmore Disclaimer. © Copyright and database right 2024.

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Administrative Areas

  • Council Renfrewshire
  • Parish Houston
  • Former Region Strathclyde
  • Former District Renfrew
  • Former County Renfrewshire

Archaeology Notes

NS46NW 2 4147 6862.

(NS 4147 6862) Barochan House (NAT)

OS 6" map (1970)

Barochan House (NR)

OS 6" map (1970)

Barochan House: The main feature is a tall square tower, standing about the centre of the building, and about 20ft higher than the rest. The Ordnance Survey Name Book (ONB) states that its date of erection was unknown, though it was believed to be over 500 years old. (This would imply that it was built as a successor to NS46NW 3). However, Millar states that the principal portion of the mansion was built towards the end of the 16th century by Janet Sempill, widow of Alexander Fleming, to replace the original structure which had been accidently destroyed by fire. It was considerably extended and improved during the 18th and 19th centuries.

Name Book 1856; A H Millar 1889

The square tower was demolished in recent years due to general decay and dry rot.

Information from A Heron, Houston parish minister, 6 March 1951.

Barochan House now has the appearance of a building recently renovated. Access was not gained to the interior.

Visited by OS (WMJ) 7 March 1951

NS 414 686 The initial stages of the evaluation in April 2002 involved cleaning back of parts of a development area - the upper surface of a bedrock outcrop - and revealed evidence of surviving structural remains and shaping of the bedrock surface relating to the preparation of the site for a substantial building. Documentary sources are very specific that the pre-fire Barochan House incorporated substantial parts of the structure erected following the burning of its predecessor in the late 16th century. Complete clearance of the area and careful recording of all bedrock cuts and surviving mortar permitted a tentative reconstruction of the ground plan of what is in most probability the late 16th-century tower house, although only one in situ stone survived from the structure itself.

Archive to be deposited in the NMRS.

Sponsor: R & R Construction.

D Connolly 2002

Architecture Notes

NMRS REFERENCE:

BUILT: late 16th century

ARCHITECT: Charles S. Johnston (additions ?)

References

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