Cleerie Castle

NT50NW 6 513 093.

A fortalice, Cleary or Clerie Castle, stood on a site, marked by a huge boulder recovered from the foundations during excavations about 1905, just west of Adderstoneshiels Cottages, which agrees in position with the tower of Edderstoun, marked on Pont's map of Teviotdale c.1620.

This contradicts the site in OPS (1851), at or near the present Adderstonelee, which suggests that the earlier house stood just east of the summit of Mid Hill, in a pasture still called 'Old Town Park' which contains signs of a 'conserved water-supply in long-past times'.

The tower of Edderstoun was probably erected under the requirements of 'the Scottish estates of 1535'.

G Watson 1944

Cleerie Castle (Site). This castle stood about 400 yds west of Adderstoneshiels farmhouse, and its site, when excavated some years ago, yielded two 17th-century Renaissance finials from gate-piers, as well as slates, stone ridges, and a 16th-century angle corbel, all of which are preserved in the farmhouse."

RCAHMS 1956

John Crosier, a Scottish Borderer, was mentioned in 1544.

Hamilton Papers 2, App.xxxii; No.78

No trace was found of the boulder mentioned by Watson, and no local information was obtained as to the exact siting of the castle. The field centred at NT 513 093 is called Cleary by the present farmer. The finds mentioned by RCAHMS are still at the farmhouse.

Visited by OS (JTT) 9 March 1965