Auchenrivock Tower

Gatehouse Classification - Not available

Has been described as a Questionable Bastle-house

There are masonry ruins/remnants remains

NameAuchenrivock Tower
Alternative NamesSteakhugh; Stakeheuch; Stakehughe; Achiniriffack
Medieval County
Historic CountryDumfriesshire
Modern AuthorityDumfries And Galloway
1974 AuthorityDumfries and Galloway
Civil ParishCanonbie

(NY 3721 8049) Auchenrivock Tower (NR) (Remains of) (NAT) (OS 6 map (1957))
Built of irregular boulders and now forming part of the garden wall to the N of adjoining farm buildings, the remains of Auchenrivock Castle, earlier Stakeheugh (J and R Hyslop 1912), measure 33 1/4 ft N-S over walls 4ft thick and 7ft high, the N wall 13 1/2ft, and the S 10ft long. Shot holes remain in the N and S walls.
This was the original seat of the Irving family and was burnt by Sir Christopher Dacre in 1513. (RCAHMS 1920, visited 1912)
NY 3721 8050. The decaying remains of Auchenrivock Tower are now obscured by dense vegetation. The W wall is 9.4m long, 1.6m high internally and 0.9m high externally. The return walls are 4.0m and 3.0m long respectively; a single shot hole survives in both the N and W walls (but not in the S wall). (Visited by OS (MJF) 10 October 1979)
All that remains of this tower, formerly known as Stakeheuch, are fragments of the N, S and W walls. (RCAHMS 1981, visited March 1981)
Tower {NR} (remains of) {NAT} (OS 1:10,000 map, 1983)
The remains of this building, which is probably a fortified house of late 16th- or 17th-century date, lie to the rear of a garden plot on the NW side of Auchenrivock steading, from where it would have enjoyed a particularly fine psospect across the valley towards Broomholm. The house was rectangular on plan, measuring 10.3m from N to S by 4.1m transversely over walls up to 0.9m thick and 1.7m high where best preserved (at the N end); the greater part of the E wall and part of the adjoining S wall have been removed by robbing. The interior was divided into two compartments, the smaller, on the N, containing a newel-stair of which only the cut-back treads remain. A chamber beneath the stair was lit by a small circular loophole in the N wall

The main apartment at ground floor level was vaulted with a loophole in the W wall (piercing the haunch of the vault and of the same type as that in the N wall) and a mural recess with splayed jambs (possibly a flue) towards the W end of the S wall.
The house possibly occupies the site of the tower-house that was the original seat of the Irving family and was burnt by Sir Christopher Dacre in 1513. (Visited by RCAHMS (IMS), March 1993)
Only a fragment now remains of a tower of the Irvines originally called Stakeheugh. It or a previous tower on this site was burnt in 1513 by Christopher Dacre. (M Salter 1993)
Listed as tower. (RCAHMS 1997)

Auchenrivock Tower is situate near the mouth of the Irvine burn, the northern limit of the Debatable land. Its western wall, 33 feet long and originally 4 feet thick, is standing; as is its northern wall, 7 feet long and 3 feet thick. Both walls are pierced by a loophole, splaying inward and outward from a small circular porthole in the middle of the wall, similar to those at the Crew, Bewcastle. Auchenrivock was sometimes known as Stakeheugh, and belonged to the Irwins. (Graham 1914)

Gatehouse Comments

The remains are ambiguous as to to form but, on the bases of social status as an early caputof the Irvines and relatively early date (possible in existence in 1513 when 'Stakehughe the manor place of Irewyn' was recorded as being burnt although by a relatively small party of men who reported burnt this manor place and other places all in one morning) probably a small tower of three or more storeys. Not a chamber over byre peel-house but, arguably, might be considered as a 'superior bastle'.

- Philip Davis

This site is a scheduled monument protected by law

Not Listed

Historic England (PastScape) Defra or Monument number(s)
County Historic Environment Record
OS Map Grid ReferenceNY37218050
Latitude55.11498
Longitude-2.98581
Eastings337210
Northings580500
Length"33'3"""
Width"10' - 13'6"""
Dimensions Comment
VaultYes
Vault Comment
Orientation180
Orientation Comment
Wall Thickness 14'
Wall Thickness 23'
Map1590, A Platt of the opposete Borders of Scotland to ye west marches of England(The Aglionby Platt) British Library online Gallery and Old Cumbria Gazetteer (see also Gatehouse Essay 'The Aglionby Platt')
Blaeu, J., 1654, 'Lidalia vel Lidisdalia regio, Lidisdail' in Theatrum Orbis Terrerum, sive Atlas Novus, Vol.5; Scotice et Hibernia(Amsterdam) Map online copy
HolderIrvine
HyperLink HyperLink HyperLink

No photos available. If you can provide pictures please contact Castlefacts

Books

  • Maxwell-Irving, A.M.T., 2014, The Border towers of Scotland 2: Their Evolution and Architecturep. 99-100, 185, 377, 456
  • Coventry, M., 2001, The castles of Scotland(Musselburgh)
  • Maxwell-Irving, A.M.T., 2000, The Border towers of Scotland: their history and architecture: the West Marchp. 65-66 no. 3
  • RCAHMS, 1997, Eastern Dumfriesshire: an archaeological landscape(Edinburgh) p. 116
  • Gifford, J., 1996, The Buildings of Scotland: Dumfries and Galloway(London: Yale University Press)
  • Salter, M., 1993, The castles of south-west Scotland(Malvern)
  • RCAHMS, 1981, The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. The archaeological sites and monuments of Ewesdale and Lower Eskdale, Annandale and Eskdale District, Dumfries and Galloway Region(RCAHMS Archaeological sites and monuments of Scotland 13)
  • RCAHMS, 1920, The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments and Constructions of Scotland. Seventh report with inventory of monuments and constructions in the county of Dumfries(Edinburgh) p. 27 no. 44 online copy
  • Hyslop, J. and Hyslop, R., 1912, Langholm as it was: a history of Langholm and Eskdale from the earliest timesp. 353 online copy
  • NSA, 1845, The new statistical account of Scotland by the ministers of the respective parishes under the superintendence of a committee of the society for the benefit of the sons and daughters of the clergy(Edinburgh) Vol. 4 Dumfries p. 490 online copy

Journals

  • Graham, T.H.B., 1914, 'The Debatable Land Part II' Transactions of the Cumberland and Westmorland Antiquarian and Archaeological SocietyVol. 14 p. 137 online copy
  • Ellis, H., 1829, 'Copy of a manuscript tract addressed to Lord Burghley, illustrative of the Border topography of Scotland, AD 1590, with a platt or map of the Borders taken in the same year' ArchaeologiaVol. 22 p. 161-71 online copy

Primary Sources

  • Brewer, J.S. (ed), 1920, Letters and Papers, Foreign and Domestic, of the Reign of Henry VIIIVol. 1 p. 1060 no. 2406 online copy