Barnhills Castle

Barnhills Castle is a much-ruined tower house of the 16th century sitting in woodland overlooking the confluence of the Craigend Burn with the River Teviot. The ground slopes gently towards the river valley to the south, and is also overlooked by Minto Crag to the west, crowned by Fatlips Castle.

There was a tower of East Barnhills which was burned in the devastating English raid into Teviotdale in 1545 along with the tower of Minto Crag (Fatlips), Minto town and place, West Minto and Craigend. However, Barnhills Tower is in fact the westernmost of the two towers of Barnhills, and must be a replacement. Both in fact are shown and named by Pont on his map of Teviotdale, c1595. The tower was therefore built in the second half of the 16th century. The lands of Barnhills were granted to Hector Turnbull in 1554, and this was confirmed in 1586. In 1607 John Turnbull received his charters, and again in 1618. By this time John Turnbull had wadset (mortgaged) the lands of Easter Barnhills to Ragwell Bennet, and in 1628 John Turnbull’s brother and heir William was involved in a lengthy dispute with Bennet over the lands which rumbled on for decades, eventually seeming to be resolved in Bennet’s favour in 1668. In 1703 William Bennet sold the lands to the Rutherford family. By the 19th century they were in the possession of Lord Minto.

The tower, roughly speaking, is orientated east-west, with the western gable overlooking the burn. The doorway faces north, which is upstream and away from the path of likely troop movements along the Teviot. The door leads to a winding stair built into a thicker section of walling in the north-eastern corner, and three steps lead down into the vaulted basement, which is lit by three gun-loops and two slit windows. There is a single gun-loop in each gable, and one facing south. There is nothing really surviving of the upper floors to determine the layout or any architectural features, but the Pont map shows the two towers of Barnhills as having two storeys and an attic, so presumably this was the case, with a hall on the first floor and perhaps a pair of small chambers above, the internal space being perhaps 7.5 metres by 3.5. It is not clear when the tower was abandoned, but it is shown as ruined on a map of 1840.

HES Canmore database entry