Upper Huntlywood

Several fragments of worked stone have been incorporated in the walls of Upper Huntlywood steading, which lies about 4km west of Gordon village. These must have come from an earlier structure that once stood in the area.

Built into the western gable are the much-eroded remains of an armorial panel. Although the central portion is now missing, part of an inscription 'O F A' can be read.

Local traditions and observations of the late eighteenth century describe the remains of walls, perhaps belonging to a castle, which lay near the hamlet of Huntly. As the Gordon family owned the surrounding land, it has been suggested that these marked the site of a tower-house or other fortified place they had built. These fragments may have came from such a structure.

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

NT64SW 48.01 617 431

See also NT64SW 19.

Built into the W gable of the farm cottages at Upper Huntlywood (NT 6177 4326), there is a greatly-eroded sandstone armorial panel. The central part is missing, but the upper portion bears the incomplete inscription OFA... Elsewhere, the walls of the steading incorporate a variety of fragments of worked stone, some of which are probably derived from the earlier buildings on the site.

Visited by RCAHMS (RJCM/JRS) 30 September 1993.

When it was recorded in 1908 for the RCAHMCS 1915 Inventory of Monuments and Constructions in the County of Berwick, the text on the armorial panel set into the west end of the row of farm cottages read 'ISOBEL HVM VMVH[ILE] SPOVS OF A. H. OF HVTTOVN H. A.D. 1594'. Transliterated, this reads 'Isobel Hume, somewhile spouse of Alexander Hutton of Huttown, A.D.1594'. More recent accounts have noted the severe erosion of the panel and the loss of most of the inscription.

Information from HES Survey and Recording (JRS) 23 September 2020.