Spottiswoode

A mid-nineteenth century source records that Spottiswoode was once the site of a hamlet. Modern maps do not indicate any remains, other than those of a chapel, around Spottiswoode House. However, today the area is heavily wooded, so any further evidence may be obscured.

The Whitechapel at Spottiswoode was built in the fourteenth century for use by both the Spottiswoode family and the people of the surrounding area. This indicates that the local population must have been numerous enough to warrant the building of the chapel.

It is likely that the people who lived at Spottiswoode worked on the estate, providing the Spottiswoode household with goods to use and trade. The family would also have required the local people to fight for them. In the medieval period, cross-border warfare was common and the interests of land owners required protection.

Text prepared by RCAHMS as part of the Accessing Scotland's Past project

NT64NW 21 602 499.

See also Bassendean deserted medieval village, NT64NW 15.

There was formerly a hamlet of considerable extent at Spottiswoode (NT 602 499)

New Statistical Account (NSA, R Jamieson) 1845.