Burnmouth Bastle 1

Has been described as a Possible Bastle

There are masonry ruins/remnants remains

NameBurnmouth Bastle 1
Alternative Names
Historic CountryNorthumberland
Modern AuthorityNorthumberland
1974 AuthorityNorthumberland
Civil ParishTarset

Incorporated into a later field wall, the lower parts of two walls of a bastle-type building in very substantial masonry c.36 inches thick. The remains are c.5 feet and c.18 x 30 feet in length. Random rubble, 16th or early 17th century. Field wall c.40 yards north west of Burnmouth (Grundy 1987)

Solitary form bastle remains, walls 0.9m thick (Ryder 1990)

Bastle-type building referred to by Grundy presumably at NY 79208802 - c.8m x 5.5m, with walls 0.6m-0.8m thick. Further east at NY 79268804 are ruins of another building 8m x 5m, walls 0.8m thick. Both of some age, though neither really looks like a bastle (Ryder 1990). (Northumberland HER)

No doubt about where this bastle was, for one of its long walls still exists and it is used as a farmyard boundary. It is about six feet high and three feet wide, and from its west side there is a sharp drop into the dene where the Tarret Burn joins the tarset Burn. The wall is visible from the road. (Dodds 1999)

Gatehouse Comments

See also Burnmouth Bastle 2 This does seems to be shown on the 1862 OS map, if that map is accurate there do appear to have been some changes since 1862 and the farmhouse post-dates the map and the SW-NE range of outbuildings shown on the map, despite being on the same alignment, lay slightly north of the current range. The supposed bastle would then have been the westmost part of range of roofed buildings approximately 35m in length. The 1896 OS map shows the current farm house and the outbuilding range in its current location with the bastle marked as wall outlines (most of the easternmost part of that earlier long range is not shown and may have been timber buildings or buildings with much slighter walls) In this area there was a high density of bastles but one should note Peter Ryder's words and not assume that every old rectangular thick walled building was a bastle.

- Philip Davis

Not scheduled

Not Listed

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s)
County Historic Environment Record
OS Map Grid ReferenceNY792880
Latitude55.1861190795898
Longitude-2.3285698890686
Eastings379200
Northings588020
HyperLink HyperLink HyperLink

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Books

  • Dodds, John F., 1999, Bastions and Belligerents (Newcastle upon Tyne: Keepdate Publishing) p. 295

Other

  • The Archaeological Practice Ltd., 2004, 'Tarset and Greenhaugh Northumberland an archaeological and historical study of a border township' Northumberland National Park Historic Village Atlas p. 42-3 (slight) (The Northumberland National Park Authority) online copy
  • Ryder, P.F., 1990, Bastles and Towers in the Northumberland National Park (Report for Northumberland National Park Authority) p. 57
  • Grundy, J., 1987, The Historic Buildings of the Northumberland National Park TAR19