More information : A survey of 1541 mentions that in the township of Middleton Hall are two stone houses or Bastles, one of the inheritance of Robert Rutherford and the other of John Rutherford.
A description of 1883 states that the present mansion house is modern. The old hall stood at the bottom of the present pleasure ground and may have represented one of the bastles mentioned in 1541. The foundations of the other are in the adjacent field. (1)
About midway between Castle Hill and the present house and adjoining the farm buildings on the west (Area NT 989254), are faint traces of the old tower, the walls of which were taken away in 1806 when building the offices. The walls were about 7 feet thick and 7 feet high and among the ruins was found an iron spearhead now in the possession of the proprietor. (2)
Old foundations were encountered when the tennis court was being constructed at NT 98902543.
This is south of the Hall and west of the farm buildings and agrees with the site of the tower as described by MacLaughlan. The situation is also at the bottom of a slope and is presumably the "bottom of the pleasure ground" referred to by NCH. The area is now occupied by flower beds, lawn and tennis court, with no traces of antiquity.
The 'adjoining field' is apparently that to the immediate south where a slight sub-rectangular enclosure 17m x 10m littered with stones, at NT 98962535, may represent the site of the second Castle. (3)
An estate map of 1802 held by the present owner of Middleton Hall shows a small isolated building in area NT 9890 2543.
Nothing is shown in area NT 98962535 and no suggestive names appear. The insubstantial nature of the sub-rectangular enclosure is no evidence for the siting of the second Bastle, and there is no indication of antiquity in its form. (4)
Listed by Cathcart King and by Dodds. (5,6) |