Description

The monument comprises a motte of medieval date, visible as a substantial grass-covered mound.

The motte lies within the grounds of Balnagask House, opposite Mains of Balnagask, in what is now a modern housing estate, adjacent to Baxter Place, Aberdeen. Before it was subsumed within the SE outskirts of Aberdeen, the motte would have occupied a prominent position, at around 20m OD, overlooking the Dee Estuary and Nigg Bay.

Mottes are artificial mounds which were once topped with timber castles. This type of monument was common in twelfth and thirteenth-century Scotland, a significant element in the feudal landscape. Mottes were sometimes accompanied by baileys (enclosed courtyards for ancillary buildings), although there are no traces of a bailey at Balnagask.

A Normanised Celtic family, with the territorial designation of de Nug, held the lands here in the twelfth century. Otherwise, little is known of the historical associations of this motte, although it is thought to have been located within a hunting reserve.

The motte still stands around 6m high, although its top was re-modelled in the early twentieth century obscuring any traces of medieval remains on its upper surface. It is surrounded around much of its perimeter by a high retaining wall of early modern date. The ground surface behind the wall is c.2m higher than the level of Baxter Place, indicating that the insertion of the wall and road cut through the outer edges of the motte and any associated remains.

The area proposed for scheduling comprises the remains described and an area around them within which related material may be expected to survive. It is irregular in shape, with maximum dimensions of 74m NNW-SSE by 54m WSW-ENE, as marked in red on the accompanying map.

It is confined within the existing high boundary wall around the NE, E and S edges of the site, and a wooden fence around the NW and W. The boundary walls and fences are excluded from the scheduling to allow for routine maintenance.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Statement of Scheduling

The monument is of national importance as an impressive motte, a rare survival of a castle mound in Aberdeen, which has the potential to contribute to an understanding of the organisation, settlement and economy of the feudal landscape in the immediate hinterland of an important medieval town. The motte itself has the potential to elucidate the nature and development of medieval fortified settlement and economy.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland

Sources

Bibliography

RCAHMS records the monument as NJ 90 NE 3.

Bibliography:

Bogdan, N. and Bryce, I. B. D. (1991) 'Castles, manors and town houses survey', Discovery & Excavation in Scotland, 23.

Meldrum, E. (1957) 'Mounth passes and motehills', The Deeside Field, 2 ser, 2, 22.

Scottish Castle Survey (1988) Aberdeen, 6. no. 4/2.

Yeoman, P. A. (1988) 'Mottes in NE Scotland', Scot Archaeol Rev, 5, 130, 132, no. 2.

Source: Historic Environment Scotland