Joh: A strõg: (The Gatehouse Record of the Aglionby Platt)

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as; Chapel Knowe; Meirburnshead

In the civil parish of Canonbie.
In the historic county of Dumfriesshire, Scotland.
Modern Authority of Dumfries And Galloway, Scotland.
1974 county of Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland.

OS Map Grid Reference: NY45188130
Latitude 55.12304° Longitude -2.86120°

This is certain as the location of Joh: A strõg: shown on the Aglionby Platt.

There are masonry footings remains.

The likely form(s) of this building in 1590 are;

Pele House ('bastle').

Reproduced by permission of the National Library of Scotland

Description

(NY 4517 8130) Chapel (NR) (Remains of) (OS 6" map (1957))
A chapel is said (OSA 1795) to have stood at Chapel Knowe. Only its foundations remained in 1858. (Orig Paroch Scot 1851; Name Book 1858)
NY 4518 8130. The remains of a chapel situated on level ground within a bend in the Muir Burn. Measuring overall 14.2m E-W by 6.8m, the grassed-over walling, 0.8m wide, survives to a maximum height of 0.6m. There is an entrance gap in the S wall. Surveyed at 1:10,000. Visited by OS (TRG) 3 July 1979.
Situated on the E bank of the Muir Burn, 700m WNW of Ryeleahead cottage (NY38SE 24), there are the stone foundations of a rectangular building of lime-mortar construction measuring 12.4m from E to W by 5.1m transversely within walls 0.7m thick. Across the doorway, placed just W of the mid-point of the S side, there is a dressed threshold wrought with a broad chamfer. This is probably the former chapel that the Statistical Account notes at 'Chapel-knowe, on the borders of Canonby' (RCAHMS 1981, visited February 1981; OSA 1791-9; OS 6-inch map, Dumfriesshire, 1st ed. (1862), sheet liv.)
Ryeleahead, Chapel Knowe. Listed as chapel. (RCAHMS 1997)
The remains of this chapel measure 12.3m from E to W by 5.1m transversely within a wall of mortared dressed masonry 0.8m thick and up to 0.9m high. The entrance, on the S, has a chamfered door-surround and the sandstone threshold also has an external chamfer. (LID96 161)
Visited by RCAHMS (SDB) 29 February 1996 (Canmore 67885)

The tower of 'Joh: Armstrong' cannot be located. A map of 1590 notes it to the W of the Muir Burn, at NY c. 444 826. (J and R Hyslop 1912; RCAHMS 1981)
This Armstrong tower is in fact the Puddingburn Tower at NY 4548 8577 (M Robson, Hawick Museum). Visited by OS (MJF) 7 August 1979.
There is no change to the existing record. Information from RCAHMS (JRS), 23 July 1993.
Listed as tower. (RCAHMS 1997) (Canmore 67905)

Comments

A fortified house is marked on the 1590 map in the approximate area of Ryeleahead. This may be the same as Meirburnshead shown on Pont's map of 1607. The remains of the 'Chapel' at Ryeleahead and it general location are entirely consistent with a bastle. Non-conformist chapels often started in domestic houses so it is entirely possible this was a C16 bastle later used as a chapel. However the evidence this was a chapel is solely the OSA account so it may be a misattribution of the remains as a chapel just because it is an East-West orientated building.
Care needs to be taken in interpreting the 1590 map but this doesn't seem to be Puddington Tower. The Armstrong clan was very large with many hundred members of the family in the area many of whom would have been living in modest chamber over byre peel houses.
The given map reference is approximate only. On the first edition 6 inch OS a small enclosure, possibly with a ruined building, is shown at NY44878241 and a small roofed building called Muirburnhead is marked at NY44458178. Noting is visible on the air photo for the first of these (the area is a forestry plantation. The small building survives at the second location. A third enclosure (Rae Gill) is at NY44198234. On the bases of analogue with other sites I would suggest the first of these three as a likely site for a late medieval farmstead and the site of John Armstrong's fortified house (which will, most likely, have been a chamber over byre peel-house of modest dimensions.)

Sources of information, references and further reading

Canmore (The online National Monument Record for Scotland) Number 67885; 67905.
County Historic Environment Record (or Sites and Monuments Record) number(s) MDG8144.

Books
- Coventry, M., 2008, Castles of the Clans: the strongholds and seats of 750 Scottish families and clans (Musselburgh)
  RCAHMS, 1997, Eastern Dumfriesshire: an archaeological landscape (Edinburgh) p. 250, 324 no. 1805
  RCAHMS, 1981, The Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland. The archaeological sites and monuments of Ewesdale and Lower Eskdale, Annandale and Eskdale District, Dumfries and Galloway Region (RCAHMS Archaeological sites and monuments of Scotland 13) p. 21 no. 118
  Hyslop, J. and Hyslop, R., 1912, Langholm as it was: a history of Langholm and Eskdale from the earliest times p. 320- online copy
  OSA, 1795, The statistical account of Scotland, drawn up from the communications of the ministers of the different parishes (Edinburgh) Vol. 16 p. 71 online copy (registration required)
Periodical Articles
- Ellis, H., 1829, 'Copy of a manuscript tract addressed to Lord Burghley, illustrative of the Border topography of Scotland, AD 1590, with a platt or map of the Borders taken in the same year' Archaeologia Vol. 22 p. 161-71 online copy
Maps (Early maps)
- 1590, A Platt of the opposete Borders of Scotland to ye west marches of England (The Aglionby Platt) British Library online Gallery and Old Cumbria Gazetteer
  Blaeu, J., 1654, 'Lidalia vel Lidisdalia regio, Lidisdail' in Theatrum Orbis Terrerum, sive Atlas Novus, Vol.5; Scotice et Hibernia (Amsterdam) Map online copy

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Suggestions for finding online and/or hard copies of bibliographical sources can be seen at this link.
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The Gatehouse website record of

Joh: A strõg: (Ryeleahead)

a location shown on a 1590 map of the West Marches of Scotland (The Aglionby Platt)