Alternative Names Castle Cary
Site Type TOWER HOUSE
Canmore ID 45827
Site Number NS77NE 23
NGR NS 78663 77526
Council FALKIRK
Parish FALKIRK
Former Region CENTRAL
Former District FALKIRK
Former County STIRLINGSHIRE
Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Canmore Mapping
View this site on a map

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Architectural Notes

REFERENCE:
NMRS
I G Lindsay Collection, W/174
W/195

Notes and Activities

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Archaeological Notes

NS77NE 23 78663 77526

The tower and eastern range have been restored, and are in use as a dwelling house. Only the lower portion of the western courtyard wall appears to be an original feature.
Visited by OS August 1959 and April 1967.

Fifteenth-century tower-house with 17th-century additions, possibly planned as an L-shaped building but not completed; it incorporates much reused Roman masonry.
D MacGibbon and T Ross 1889; RCAHMS 1963; RCAHMS 1978

NS 7867 7752. Work by Falkirk Museum prior to the installation of a new sewage system revealed a broad ditch, 7.5m wide, under the 17th-century extension to the tower house. The ditch had been deliberately filled in for the construction of this wing, and may have been contemporary with the original structure of 1485.
Sponsor: R Hunter.
G B Bailey 1996

17 May 2007 to 20 December 2007

ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVALUATION

Notes NS 7870 7775 Topographic and earthwork surveys and an evaluation of the Castle Glen industrial area were undertaken from 17 May–20 December 2007, as part of the programme of works for the M80 Stepps to Haggs improvement scheme. The Castle Glen area is part of a larger area of extensive industrial remains that survive throughout the Castlecary glen, including lime workings, quarrying and mining sites. Other probable contemporary features included banks, trackways, revetting and terracing.
During the surveys the remains of a putative clamp kiln were uncovered. Evaluation of the feature revealed it to
be two mounds of made ground, one associated with the construction of the A80 and the second probably associated with the construction of the river revetment. It was clear from the excavation that the landscape had been heavily impacted upon by modern development and the land had been sculpted.
Archive: RCAHMS
Funder: Historic Scotland
Laura Scott (Headland Archaeology Ltd), 2008

Further details

 

Books and References

Bailey, G B (1996d) 'Castlecary (Falkirk parish), tower house', Discovery Excav Scot
Page(s): 42

Gillespie MacAndrew ([2002]) Castle Cary, Castlecary, Stirlingshire & Clackmannan: [sale particulars], Edinburgh
Page(s): 52164 Held at RCAHMS D.2.23.CAR.S

MacGibbon and Ross, D and T (1887-92) The castellated and domestic architecture of Scotland from the twelfth to the eighteenth centuries, 5v Edinburgh
Page(s): Vol.3, 439-42 Held at RCAHMS F.5.21.MAC

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