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Cally Castle

Earthwork (Medieval), Rig And Furrow (Medieval) - (Post Medieval), Tower House (Medieval)

Site Name Cally Castle

Classification Earthwork (Medieval), Rig And Furrow (Medieval) - (Post Medieval), Tower House (Medieval)

Alternative Name(s) Cally House

Canmore ID 63633

Site Number NX55NE 12

NGR NX 5982 5536

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/63633

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Administrative Areas

  • Council Dumfries And Galloway
  • Parish Girthon
  • Former Region Dumfries And Galloway
  • Former District Stewartry
  • Former County Kirkcudbrightshire

Archaeology Notes

NX55NE 12 5984 5535.

(NX 5982 5536) Cally House (NR) (Remains of)

OS 6" map (1959)

The only part of Cally Castle now remaining is the N gable, 23' wide over 4' thick walls, standing 25' high. It is thickly covered with ivy, and no features exist to indicate its probably date. The building appears to have been oblong on plan, and contained a vaulted basement, two upper floors and possibly an attic. In the 13th c Cally was held by a Stewart but later passed to the Lennoxes and Murrays.

NSA 1845; RCAHMS 1914, visited 1911; I F MacLeod 1969

The remains of Cally Castle have deteriorated considerably since visited by RCAHMS - the N wall is now reduced to about 3.0m in height, and the internal arrangements are no longer evident.

The tower is enclosed within a dry moat, oblong on plan, measuring internally 86m E-W by 62m transversely, the ditch averaging 10m in width. The W arm and part of the N and S arms lie in arable land and have been reduced by cultivation; the remainder of the moat falls within dense woodland and is traced with difficulty. There is an entrance causeway in the centre of the E side; breaks in the N side and the SE corner are probably recent, to carry woodland rises.

Resurveyed at 1:2500.

Visited by OS (WDJ) 10 July 1970

Activities

Field Visit (28 April 1994)

The remains of this tower-house lie within a sub-rectangular, ditched, earthwork on the edge of a wood, now incorporated in a golf course. Only the N wall of the tower, standing to about 3m in height, was visible on the date of visit. The earthwork is as previously described, except that a gravel path overlies the causeway across the ditch, which is up to 12m across and 1.2m deep. To the S and W of the earthwork ploughed-down ridging, measuring about 7m between furrows, is visible.

(Cree94 294)

Visited by RCAHMS (DCC) 28 April 1994.

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