More information : A tower is known to have been at Butterknowes. In a description of Rothbury Forest a century ago, (c. 1803) the so-called Forest was stated to be dotted over the "Bastile buildings". Not one of these strong houses remain at the present day. (1)
NZ 09139918. Butterknowes consists of a farmhouse with outbuildings, and is situated upon a small rise of ground surrounded by low-lying pastureland. The site commands the valley of the River Coquet to the north and east. On the north side of the farmstead is a tract of marshy ground and a pond.
The modern farmhouse incorporates remains of a preceding structure which was of great strength, 10.1m of the north outside wall, and the whole of an interior dividing wall running north-south, 6.2m in length, is 1.2m thick at ground level, narrowing to 1.0m at first floor level. The wall is seen on the north side to be constructed of large rough-hewn stones, with well fashioned quoins. The full extent of the remains so incorporated, can be traced within the farmhouse from the numerous doorways and windows which have been inserted. No other traces of an earlier structure could be found in or around the farmstead. The occupiers could offer no information about the site. (2)
Condition unchanged. The remains appear likely to be those of a bastle. (3)
NZ 092993. Butterknowes incorporating probable remains of bastle. (See Type Site NY 88 SE 14). (4)
NZ 09139918. Farmhouse incorporating the remains of a late 16th/early 17th century bastle. The building was extended and refronted circa 1800 and the rear wing and outshut were added in the second quarter of the 19th century. The stone-built structure is 2 storeyed with a Welsh slate roof. Listed . (5)
Butterknowes was probably built between 1550-1586 by the Earl of Northumberland, for in 1586, the occupier complained that despite the newly completed fortification, he had lost livestock to a Scottish raiding party. Listed by Cathcart King and by Dodds. (6,7) |