Discover Alone ← Back to nearby map

← Back to the nearby map

Designed landscape — folly in Castle Ellen

Designed landscape — folly
View what I want to do
No photo yet

Add your own picture and explain the route, parking, gates, paths or landmarks that help people find it.

Earn 5 points after the picture is checked and accepted.

Add your photo and local directionsShare what you found

What is recorded here

In flat pastureland. This rectangular enclosure (c. 27m NE-SW; c. 21m NW-SE) is defined by two slight earthen banks with an intervening fosse. Trees are growing along the S and W sides of the inner bank (Wth 2.-2.5m; int. H 0.3m; ext. H 1-1.2m). Its outer face is vertical and faced with a revetment of drystone walling (H 0.8m). The revetment is well built and almost completely intact. A post and wire fence crosses the W tip of the outer bank (Wth 2.5-3.5m; H 0.3m). There are causewayed gaps across the fosse midway along its NE (Wth 3m) and SW (Wth 3-3.5m) sides, the later appears to be a later addition (SMR file). Based on the cartographic evidence, Cody (1989, 352-3) believes that the enclosure was built sometime between 1839 and 1892 as it is shown on the OS 25-inch plan of 1892 and 1927-8 but not on the original OS 6-inch map or its Fair Plan. The remains of a tower house (GA084-050001-) and a section of its associated bawn wall (GA084-050003-) stand isolated in the W half of the interior. The enclosure is possibly a folly and may have been meant to represent a moated site. Compiled by: Olive Alcock Date of upload: 7 September 2021

The monument record does not grant public access. Check the route and ask the landowner before entering private land.