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Kilspindie Castle

Castle (Medieval)

Site Name Kilspindie Castle

Classification Castle (Medieval)

Canmore ID 58776

Site Number NT76SE 5

NGR NT 7974 6475

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/58776

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

  • Council Scottish Borders, The
  • Parish Coldingham
  • Former Region Borders
  • Former District Berwickshire
  • Former County Berwickshire

Archaeology Notes

NT76SE 5 7974 6475.

(NT 7974 6475) Castle (NR) (remains of)

OS 1:10,000 map, (1977).

Kilspindie Castle (NR) (Site of)

OS 6"map, Berwickshire, 2nd ed.,(1908).

This spot was pointed out by local informants in 1856 as the site of Kilspindie Castle. Its history was not known, but it was supposed to have been connected with some monastic establishment. Its foundations could be traced.

Name Book 1856.

The ruins of what the Ordnance Survey call 'Kilspindie Castle' lie a few yards W of the road through Butterdean farm. The remains are not readily distinguishable. The site is beyond the present barnyard and extends on its W side to the mill pond. The moat can easily be traced on the E and S sides. Very little of the building is now extant, the pond wall and embankment probably containing the stones which have been removed. A part of the E wall, 8 yds long, 3 1/2ft thick and 4ft high still stands, and other pieces of masonry may be found between this wall and the W wall. (In stating that this castle may have been a stronghold of Douglas of Kilspindie, etc, Thomson is confusing this building with Kilspindie Castle at Aberlady - NT48SE 3)

A Thomson 1908.

The remains described by Thomson are clearly identifiable to the SE of the pond, but SW and SE should be read for S and E in his account. The masonry remains line the interior rim of the moat and are of rubble and mortar.

They are very dilapidated. The SE portion, which is the largest, is now only about 0.3m high. The moat is 8.0m wide and averages 0.4m in depth. To the S and E of it is a complex of shallow ditches, probably of a later date.

Visited by OS(CJP) 27 September 1956.

Generally as described by the previous authorities. The complex of ditches noted by the previous field investigator has been destroyed by the erection of new farm buildings.

Surveyed at 1:2500.

Visited by OS(RD) 3 May 1966.

The remains of a substantial stone building occupy the SE corner of what was formerly an enclosure measuring 35m from NE to SW by at least 16.8m transversely within a ditch up to 6.7m broad. On the N the enclosure has been destroyed by the construction of a mill pond. (No name is given to this building by the Society of Antiquities surveyors.)

RCAHMS 1980, visited 1979; C S Romanes 1907.

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).

Sbc Note

Visibility: This is an upstanding earthwork or monument.

Information from Scottish Borders Council

References

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