Scheduled Monument
Windgate House,bastle house and associated structuresSM5257
Status: Designated
Documents
Where documents include maps, the use of this data is subject to terms and conditions (https://portal.historicenvironment.scot/termsandconditions).
The legal document available for download below constitutes the formal designation of the monument under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979. The additional details provided on this page are provided for information purposes only and do not form part of the designation. Historic Environment Scotland accepts no liability for any loss or damages arising from reliance on any inaccuracies within this additional information.
Summary
- Date Added
- 09/03/1992
- Supplementary Information Updated
- 23/06/2015
- Type
- Secular: bastle; enclosure; farmstead
- Local Authority
- South Lanarkshire
- Parish
- Lamington And Wandel
- NGR
- NT 01614 27220
- Coordinates
- 301614, 627220
Description
The monument consists of the remains of a bastle house, associated field walls and occupation deposits. This secure farm residence, interpreted as a bastle house, has been excavated and consolidated. The structure, built during the 16th or 17th-century is situated at the head of the Cowgill reservoir. It is rectangular on plan and measures 13.4m N-S by 6.25m over walls 1.1m thick.
The random rubble built walls are constructed in lime mortared greywacke. The building originally had an upper floor built over a barrel-vaulted basement. Its remaining consolidated walls are reduced to a height of 1.8m. The springing of the vault starts approximately 1m above floor level. A partition with a central door gap in the S end of the ground floor forms a small room about a quarter of the
floor area of the building. The entrance (1m wide) is in the N wall.
In the NE corner a straight flight of four steps is preserved. Presumably these turned at right angles and continued to the upper level. The entrance and windows (no longer extant) were finished with dressed sandstone. Defensive features include a log hole for a draw bar in the entrance and fallen window lintels with bar holes. A
modern sheep stell to the N overlies an earlier stone walled enclosure.
There is a boundary wall running parallel to the E bank of the Fair Burn. Midden deposits were found to the S and W of the dwelling. The area to be scheduled is a quadrilateral measuring 110m NW-SE by 80m. It is bounded by a stream on the W side, as shown in red on the accompanying map.
Statement of National Importance
The monument is of national importance because it preserves visible evidence for, and has the potential through excavation to provide further evidence for, domestic and defensive architecture, post-medieval settlement and pre-improvement land use in the Clydesdale area. Pottery sherds found in the immediate environs of the monument imply that it may overlie a prehistoric occupation site.
References
Bibliography
No Bibliography entries for this designation
About Scheduled Monuments
Historic Environment Scotland is responsible for designating sites and places at the national level. These designations are Scheduled monuments, Listed buildings, Inventory of gardens and designed landscapes and Inventory of historic battlefields.
We make recommendations to the Scottish Government about historic marine protected areas, and the Scottish Ministers decide whether to designate.
Scheduling is the process that identifies, designates and provides statutory protection for monuments and archaeological sites of national importance as set out in the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979.
We schedule sites and monuments that are found to be of national importance using the selection guidance published in Designation Policy and Selection Guidance (2019)
Scheduled monument records provide an indication of the national importance of the
scheduled monument which has been identified by the description and map. The description and map (see ‘legal documents’ above) showing the scheduled area is the designation of the monument under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act 1979. The statement of national importance and additional information provided are supplementary and provided for general information purposes only. Historic Environment Scotland accepts no liability for any loss or damages arising from reliance on any inaccuracies within the statement of national importance or additional information. These records are not definitive historical or archaeological accounts or a complete description of the monument(s).
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