Farnalees Bastle

Description

Solitary bastle, 10 x 6m externally. End wall 1.15m thick. Beamed ceiling with upper cruck roof form (Ryder 1990).
The abandoned farm of Farnalees lies on the west side of the Allen valley on the south edge of the ravine of the Farnalees Burn. One byre remains roofed, but the farmhouse and adjacent range of buildings are a shattered ruin. The farmhouse appears to have been a bastle, modified in the 18th or early 19th century. The bastle measures c.10m by 6.1m externally, with walls of heavy rubble, with roughly shaped quoins; the end walls are c.0.9m thick but the north and south walls, which may have been thinned or partly rebuilt, only c.0.6m. The byre entrance doorway of the bastle is set slightly north of centre in the west end; it has a square head and a chamfered surround and is blocked, with a later fireplace built against it internally. A blocked doorway in the north wall, with a timber lintel, is clearly secondary and has given access to an added outshut (built on the brink of the precipitous valley side), of which only part of the west end and some footings of the north wall survive. In the east end is an inserted doorway, now opening into a small late 19th or 20th century outshut, but probably originally giving access to an 18th century barn, only the north wall of which remains; above this is a blocked first floor window, with a timber lintel, set a little south of centre. Little remains of the south wall of the house, apart from the remains of a 19th century window near the east end; adjacent to its east jamb what appear to be the internal jambs of two successively earlier windows are visible; externally this section of wall is partly hidden by an adjacent tree. There has been a south porch, probably of 19th century date; there were substantial remains of this in 1984, but all but the footings of its west wall have now been removed. Within the ruin the substantial transverse beams of the first floor lie in a semi-collapsed state, along with the blades of two upper cruck trusses, neatly elbowed at the wall head, with halvings for collars and overlap of blades at the apex (Ryder 1994-5). (Northumberland HER)