High Grains Bastle, Askerton

Description

Despite being reused as a shieling High Grains bastle survives reasonably well and retains a number of architectural features. The monument is a rare example of the juxtaposition of a bastle and shieling, which also survives reasonably well, and it will add greatly to our understanding of the wider border settlement and economy during the medieval period.
The monument includes High Grains medieval bastle, a roofless structure formerly of two storeys but now standing to ground floor height only, and an adjacent later medieval shieling which incorporated the remains of the bastle. It is located on slightly elevated ground on the narrow flood plain of a tributary of Kirk Beck 130m west of High Grains Farm.
The bastle is constructed of calciferous sandstone rubble and measures approximately 9.5m north east to south west by 6.5m north west to south east externally with walls up to 1.3m thick and up to 1.9m high. All the external walls other than that at the north east side are original; this fourth wall has been rebuilt to form the present entrance and includes the original chamfered and rebated jambs with a drawbar tunnel. At the western end of the bastle three projecting stones are thought to have supported the hearth of a fireplace on the upper floor; also at the western end there is a detatchable stone revealing a small spy-hole which gave views down the valley from the bastle's interior. Rubble from the upper storey of the bastle has fallen outwards and lies adjacent to three sides of the building and in places forms heaps of debris almost as high as the adjacent bastle wall. Attached to the north eastern end of the bastle is a later stone-built medieval shieling having internal dimensions of 5.5m by 4.5m with two walls surviving up to c.1.6m high. A crosswall dividing the bastle into two rooms is not an original feature and is considered to be associated with the building of the shieling, indicating that the bastle was reused to form part of a three roomed shieling. Both the bastle and shieling are depicted on a map dated 1603 accompanying the Gilsland Survey. (Scheduling Report)

The monument includes High Grains medieval bastle, a roofless structure formerly of two storeys but now standing to ground floor height only, and a later medieval shieling which incorporated the remains of the bastle. It is located 130m west of High Grains Farm. The bastle is constructed from calciferous sandstone rubble and measures 9.5m north east to south west by 6.6m north east to south east externally with walls up to 1.3m thick and up to 1.9m high.Has three gunloops. Attached to the north eastern end of the bastle is a later stone-built medieval shieling with two walls surviving up to a height of circa 1.6m high. (PastScape No. 12909)
NY58587541 The earthworks and buried remains of High Grains medieval pele tower and barmkin and three adjacent shielings, located 200 metres west of High Grains Farm. The remains of the pele tower include the largely grass covered lower courses of the tower's substantial wall (1.5 metres thick) which survive up to 1.3 metres high and indicated that it was a rectangular structure measuring 10 metres by 9 metres. A wall running south from the south east corner of the pele for a distance of 3 metres is identified as the remains of the tower's barmkin or defensive wall, whilst the position of the barmkin on the tower's north side is marked by a distinct earthwork or ledge beyond which the ground is of a rougher nature. Once the pele tower had been abandoned three rectangular stone shielings were constructed adjacent to the ruin and the turf covered foundations of these structures survive. (PastScape–No1113073)

Comments

These are two PastScape reports are clearly for the same monument, one listed as a bastle and the other as a pele tower, although the given map references are a few meters apart.