Hill of Beith Castle
| Hill of Beith Castle | ||
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 Extensive foundations of the Tower House Hill of Beith Castle |
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| Creation time : | 16th Century | |
| Castle type : | Niederungsburg (Tower House) | |
| Conservation status: | tore off | |
| Standing position : | Scottish nobility | |
| Construction: | Ashlar | |
| Place: | Beith | |
| Geographical location | 55 ° 45 '8.4 " N , 4 ° 36' 53.7" W | |
| Height: | 110 m ASL | |
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Hill of Beith Castle was a tower house in the town of Beith in the Scotland administrative unit North Ayrshire .
history
McJannet wrote that De Morville owned a ditched hill in Beith. This could later have been used as a court mound.
Easter Hill of Beith was probably a crenellated building, such as a fortress or tower house, near the Nether Hill of Beith or the Beith Mains , about half a mile southwest of the Grange , the farm of the monks of Kilwinning Abbey , where the Abbot of Kilwinning was stayed when he was there, if not the castle itself, from where the monks could see their lake and their court mound.
In the early 1600s, the fortified dwelling was known as the "Easter Hill of Byith, a pretty building, veill planted belonging to Johne Cuninghame" (English: Easter Hill of Beith, a beautiful building, well-built that belongs to John Cunninghame). Bleau's 1654 map, dating from the 1600s, shows a crenellated tower called the “Hill of Beith”
The map Military Survey of Scotland 1747–1755 by General Roy shows two groups of buildings on the "Hill of Bieth"; the group to the east is enclosed in a border wall and consists of a large, L-shaped main building and two smaller auxiliary buildings. Neither The Grange nor the Nether Hill of Beith have such large buildings.
Armstrong's 1775 map shows buildings known as the Mains and a large ruined castle nearby. It is not marked as a ruin, but the same image is used as for the Castle of Giffen ruin . Nearby properties are marked with the symbol for “country house”. Dobie stated that the castle's building blocks were mostly removed in the mid-18th century. The map from 1832 no longer shows the location of the castle, nor its official access.
Remains of extensive wall foundations made of ashlar masonry, 1.4 meters thick and 0.4 meters high, mostly overgrown with turf, can be seen in the stick rash about 200 meters northwest of the court hill and above "Boghall House". A 5 meter long and 0.6 meter thick section of a field boundary wall consists of masonry with mortar tapes and not of dry masonry. Nearby dry stone walls could consist of building blocks stolen from the castle ruins, its curtain wall or the outbuildings. Some of these stones are clearly recognizable as stone or clad building components .
Statistical records from 1845 indicate that the square-plan castle stood near the Court Hill and was demolished in the mid-18th century. Porterfield stated in 1925 that "Johnnie Cunningham's house, the tower castle on Easter Hill of Beith, was in the field at the top of an old grassy driveway leading up from the Netherhill Customs House."
The quote from Love's work reads: “Your farm is clearly identified by the names 'Grangehill' and 'The Maines'. Bleau's map shows a crenellated mansion or tower house on part of the Maynes, half a mile southwest of 'The Grange', where the abbot stayed when he was in the area. "
The castle may have been remodeled and the buildings used as a farmhouse before being abandoned entirely as a residence in the 18th century.
Individual evidence
- ↑ AF McJannet: The Rural Burgh of Irvine . Civic Press, Glasgow 1938. p. 91.
- ↑ a b Entry on Hill of Beith Castle in Canmore, the database of Historic Environment Scotland (English)
- ↑ James D. Dobie, JS Dobie (editor): Cunninghame, Topographized by Timothy Pont 104-1608, with continuations and illustrative notices . John Tweed, Glasgow 1876. p. 133.
- ↑ Blaeu's Map . National Library of Scotland. Retrieved September 8, 2017.
- ^ Roy's Map . National Library of Scotland. Retrieved September 8, 2017.
- ^ William Armstrong's Map . National Library of Scotland. Retrieved September 8, 2017.
- ↑ James D. Dobie, JS Dobie (editor): Cunninghame, Topographized by Timothy Pont 104-1608, with continuations and illustrative notices . John Tweed, Glasgow 1876. p. 134.
- ↑ Thomson's Map . National Library of Scotland. Retrieved September 8, 2017.
- ^ The New Statistical Account of Scotland . Volume 5: '' Ayr – Bute ''. Blackwood & Son, Edinburgh 1845. p. 580.
- ^ S. Porterfield: Rambles Round Beith . Pilot Press, Beith 1925. p. 13.
- ^ R. Love: Notices of the several openings of a cairn of Cuffhill; of various antiquities in the barony of Beith; and of a crannog in the Loch of Kilbirnie, Ayrshire in Proceedings of the Society on the Anities of Scotland . Volume 11, p. 283.
