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Broomhill House

House (Period Unassigned), Pin

Site Name Broomhill House

Classification House (Period Unassigned), Pin

Alternative Name(s) Straiton Hall; Broomhill College

Canmore ID 51680

Site Number NT26NE 13

NGR NT 2656 6715

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/51680

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

  • Council Edinburgh, City Of
  • Parish Edinburgh (Edinburgh, City Of)
  • Former Region Lothian
  • Former District City Of Edinburgh
  • Former County Midlothian

Archaeology Notes

NT26NE 13 2656 6715 to 2676 6709.

Broomhill House (NR) (Site of)

OS 6" map (1931-2; 1938)

This is the site of an old baronial residence surrounded by a moat or ditch. The site was levelled and the building removed a few years ago for the purpose of cultivation.

Name Book 1852

Broomhill House or Straiton Hall: (NT 2656 6715). Of this structure, merely a fragment of the west wall remains: it measures 42 1/2 feet in length, 10 feet in greatest height, and 2 feet in thickness. Towards the northern end is a window, the stones of which appear to have been removed from an earlier structure (c.17th c) and re-used.

Visited by OS (JLD) 12 November 1953

'South-east from Morton are the ruins of the house of Brownhill, once a place of strength. It is situated in a morass; it was surrounded by water, and the access to it was only by a draw bridge. The barony of Brownhill in former times was of considerable value. Straiton Hall, Straiton Mill belonged unto it'.

T Whyte 1792

There appears to be some confusion between the sites of Broomhill House and Straiton Hall in the RCAHMS volume, (1929) which implies that they are the same site. However, Whyte mentions them as separate buildings. Field investigation bears this out, as the OS site of Broomhill is situated in an area but little above water level, easily flooded, whereas the remains described by RCAHMS are on rising ground approximately 50ft above Broomhill. No trace of the latter appears today.

It is probable the length of wall still standing at NT 2676 6709 forms part of the wall of Broomhill; it is as described in RCAHMS; the window measuring 0.4m wide and 0.7m high. There are three other openings now filled in.

Visited by OS (JFC) 17 December 1953

Further investigations reveal that the wall remaining at NT 2676 6709 is sited exactly where Broomhill Cottage stood in 1852 (OS 6" map 1852);

it is apparent that stones from the old house were used in the construction of the cottage; and that the wall does not represent the remains of either Straiton Hall or Broomhill House.

Visited by OS (JFC) 22 December 1953

Broomhill House and Straiton Hall were two distinct properties. Broomhill was sited as shown and Stratton Hall was on the ground later occupied by Broomhill Cottage.

Information from B MacIntosh, farmer, Broomhills, 1954.

NT 26 67 13

Anglo-Saxon disc-headed pin (NMS). Copper-alloy disc-headed pin with the shaft bent to c 30º; recovered by metal detecting. The pinhead has been made by hammering the top of the shaft to a flat disc. The disc has then been decorated by a series of four vertical and two horizontal punched ring-and-dot ornament on each side. The shaft of the pin has no collar and tapers to a point. A punched hole in the pinhead is not in alignment with the rest of the dot decoration, suggesting a deliberate hole for threading the pin to a garment for safe-keeping. Both Anglo-Saxon and Viking period garment hooks bear similar designs and punched holes for attachment. L 95mm; pinhead diam 55mm. Claimed as Treasure Trove (TT.22/05) and allocated to NMS.

J Shiels 2005

Activities

Field Visit (1996 - 2003)

Russell Coleman managed an Historic Scotland funded project to record medieval moated sites in Scotland. Gazetteers were produced for each regional council area between 1996 and 2002 with an uncompleted overall review in 2002-03. The results of the first year of the project were published in Tayside and Fife Archaeological Journal, Volume 3 (1997).

References

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