Torthorwald Castle | The Site

Early History | The Site | The Tower | Later History

The site of the tower is at platform. roughly L shaped and measuring some 185ft by l30ft, with the two arms extending to the S and W. Beyond this to the N and E are elaborate earthworks, with high ramparts and wet and dry ditches up to 20ft deep; and although the earthworks on the other sides have largely been levelled by modern cultivation, the outline  of an outer bailey can still be traced in the adjacent field to the S and W.

Occupying the W arm of the platform is the outline of an irregular quadrangular enclosure, averaging about 60ft by 50ft. while the tower itself  stood in the re-entrant angle. From the SW corner of the tower an enclosing wall  ran S to the SW corner of the site, where there is evidence of a circular corner tower.

The wall then continued E and N around the edge of the platform to the NE corner, where there appears to have been it second corner tower before continuing W to the NE corner of the quadrangular enclosure. A further suction of the curtain. now no longer traceable, completed the enclosure an the W side, where tusking 2ft 6in wide may still be seen in the tower‘s W wall.

Immediately S of the NE corner tower, and abutting the E curtain, there was a range of outbuildings whose foundations can still be traced; they were approximately 13ft wide inside walls 3ft thick. Access to the platform was from the outer bailey to the S,  while on the E side the site of a later bridge across the wet ditch is marked by traces of the abutments.

 

Early History | The Site | The Tower | Later History