Castle Rankine

NS78SE 2 78569 81875

(NS 78569 81875) Castle Rankine (NR) (Site of)

OS 6" map (1958)

The site of Castle Rankine is 240 yds W of Castlerankine farmhouse, with the deep ravine of Castlerankine Burn on its W side. The ground to the E is said to have been marshy before improvement. No structure survives above ground, but excavations in 1938-9 revealed the foundations of a curtain wall enclosing an area 96' N-S by 91'. This wall varied from 3'9" to 4'7" thick. From the N curtain, a barbican extended to the lip of a ditch, which was identified to N and S of the enclosure and presumably existed on the E as well. Between the curtain and the ditch, W of the barbican, there was found an oval stone-lined pit, 6'6" x 4' x 3' deep. Its purpose is uncertain. From the NW corner of the enclosure, a short length of wall projects W towards the lip of the ravine, and the excavators inferred from the presence of a single chamfered stone that there had been an opening in the W curtain near this point. Stone fragments, of probable 13th century date, and some 14th-16th century potsherds were found.

It has been suggested that the name Gertranky, mentioned in 1299, refers to Castle Rankine, and though the curtain wall is unusually thin, the plan of the castle as revealed by the excavation would agree with a date in this period. Gertranky then belonged to Sir Herbert de Morham.

RCAHMS 1963, visited 1939

No traces of this castle exist in an arable field.

Visited by OS (MH), 7 May 1953.