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Latitude: 54.9508 / 54°57'2"N
Longitude: -3.9674 / 3°58'2"W
OS Eastings: 274093
OS Northings: 563565
OS Grid: NX740635
Mapcode National: GBR 0CQ6.V2
Mapcode Global: WH4VT.1T0J
Entry Name: Castle Earthworks,enclosure 500m SSW of Mains of Greenlaw
Scheduled Date: 10 October 1994
Source: Historic Environment Scotland
Source ID: SM6110
Schedule Class: Cultural
Category: Secular: castle
Location: Crossmichael
County: Dumfries and Galloway
Electoral Ward: Castle Douglas and Crocketford
Traditional County: Kirkcudbrightshire
The monument consists of the earthworks formerly surrounding, and the site of, the Fortalice of Greenlaw, a small defended house rebuilt between 1735 and 1741 on a site which was occupied at the Reformation. Only the outworks of this site survive above ground. These take the form of an irregular enclosure, in plan between a rectangle and an oval, edged by a bank with an external ditch.
The bank stands up to 0.4m high. A gap in the bank on the NE side may indicate an entrance there. The bank is best preserved at the N, W and E angles, elsewhere being generally reduced to a scarp, except on the S side, where it is largely absent, lying beneath a modern unsurfaced road which also overlies most of a broad external terrace scarped to the S.
The ditch is from 7m to 8m broad, and has a V-shaped profile. Most of its lower portion is in use as part of the modern field drainage. Limited excavations in the 1920s revealed foundations of a square tower and an L-shaped range of outbuildings within the enclosure, as well as less convincing traces of a gatehouse.
The area to be scheduled is irregular on plan, bounded partly by the inner lip of the ditch (which having been regularly cleaned out is unlikely to contain any archaeological deposits) and partly by the fence and hedge lines surrounding the enclosure, which is in use as a paddock for horses.
The modern agricultural building and all modern boundary fences and hedges are excluded from scheduling. The area to be scheduled measures a maximum of 190m WSW-ENE by 140m, as marked in red on the accompanying map.
Source: Historic Environment Scotland
The monument is of national importance as the site of a late-medieval fortified residence with proven archaeological potential to provide information about later fortified dwellings and domestic architecture during the 16th to 18th centuries, and about contemporary material culture.
Source: Historic Environment Scotland
Bibliography
RCAHMS records the monument as NX 76 SW 9.
Source: Historic Environment Scotland
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