Amisfield Tower

NX98SE 12 9909 8380.

(NX 9909 8380) Earthwork (NAT)

OS 6" map (1948)

The homestead moat 100 yards W of Amisfield Tower (NX98SE 13) is "an irregular quadrilateral area, which has been enclosed by a stone wall, encompassed by a ditch 11 feet wide at base and 7 feet deep, with an outer rampart on the crest of the counterscarp." The enclosure measures 154 feet from north to south by 143 feet from east to west and has apparently been entered from the south.

R W Feachem 1956; RCAHMS 1920

Excavation of the Amisfield enclosure suggests that it may be a "folly", dating from the end of the 18th century. "It is quite out of the question that the site can be of any great antiquity."

R E Birley and D C Fildes 1958

This earthwork is generally as described above. It is much obscured by trees and undergrowth especially on the south side. The outer bank has faded out in places; there is the suggestion of an inner bank along the crest of the ditch on the West, NW & NE sides. Birley and Fildes' excavations would seem to rule out the earthwork being a homestead moat but enquiries at Amisfield Tower could provide no information as to what it might be.

Revised at 25".

According to Mr A E Truckell, curator, Dumfries Museum, the earthwork is partly a folly, having been landscaped in the 18th Century to provide a garden feature. Probably it was originally a homestead moat about 13th Century.

Visited by OS (WDJ) 22 June 1964