House-on-the-rock, High Milton

NX06NW 4 0125 6676

See also NX06NW 5.

(NX 0125 6677) House-on-the-Rock (NAT)

OS 6" map (1847)

(Name centred : NX 0121 6677) House-on-the-Rock on Site of Craigoch Castle (NR)

OS 25" map (1908)

'House on the Rock', in ruins, was said by the late inhabitants to contain part of the old castle walls. No evidence of this was seen by Wilson.

G Wilson 1885.

A cottage, standing on a small rocky eminence, traditionally supposed to be of ancient date and to have been built by the occupier of Craigoch Castle on the birthday of his son. A great part of it had been rebuilt by 1847 and the RCAHMS describe the remains as fragmentary in 1911.

Name Book 1847; RCAHMS 1912

The House-on-the-Rock is a relatively modern croft or steading, now almost reduced to its foundations, apart from the east gable which is still standing.

The remains of walls and buildings, undoubtedly associated with Craigoch Castle, can be seen in the area centred on NX 0121 6679 but an accurate siting for the castle cannot be established although the name is known locally (see also NX06NW 5).

Visited by OS (RD) 19 February 1968.

On a rocky knoll in low-lying ground 225m NE of High Milton farmhouse there are the remains of a building known as 'House-on-the-Rock'. It measures 8m by 3.8m internally and has an outshot on the WSW, but with the exception of the E gable, which stands to a height of 4m and incorporates a chimney flue, the clay-bonded stone walls have been reduced to their lowest courses. The original date and purpose of the building are unknown, although it was rebuilt in about 1847 and abandoned by 1896. Adjacent to it are the fragmentary remains of the Mills of Craigoch, said to have comprised a meal, a flax and a carding-mill, also abandoned by 1896. There was a mill at Craigoch by the middle of the 18th century.

W Roy 1747-55; J Ainslie 1782; J Thomson 1826; Name Book 1847; OS 6-inch map, Wigtownshire, 1st ed. (1849), sheet 9; G Wilson 1885; OS 6-inch map, Wigtownshire, 2nd ed. (1896), sheet xi; P H M'Kerlie 1906; RCAHMS 1912; RCAHMS 1985, visited September 1984.