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The Gatehouse website record of

Steakhugh (Auchenrivock Tower)

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

Also known as, or recorded in historical documents as; Stakeheuch; StakehugheAchiniriffack

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: NY37218050
Latitude 55.11498° Longitude -2.98581°

The given map reference is suggested as the probable location of Steakhugh shown on the Aglionby Platt.

There are masonry ruins/remnants remains.

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

  • Tower House (gentry).

A section of the 1590 Aglionby Platt. Image reproduced by permission of the National Library of Scotland
Reproduced by permission of the National Library of Scotland
Description

(NY 3721 8049) Auchenrivock Tower (NR) (Remains of) (NAT) (OS 6" map (1957))
Built of irregular boulders and now forming part of the garden wall to the N of adjoining farm buildings, the remains of Auchenrivock Castle, earlier Stakeheugh (J and R Hyslop 1912), measure 33 1/4 ft N-S over walls 4ft thick and 7ft high, the N wall 13 1/2ft, and the S 10ft long. Shot holes remain in the N and S walls.
This was the original seat of the Irving family and was burnt by Sir Christopher Dacre in 1513. (RCAHMS 1920, visited 1912)
NY 3721 8050. The decaying remains of Auchenrivock Tower are now obscured by dense vegetation. The W wall is 9.4m long, 1.6m high internally and 0.9m high externally. The return walls are 4.0m and 3.0m long respectively; a single shot hole survives in both the N and W walls (but not in the S wall). (Visited by OS (MJF) 10 October 1979)
All that remains of this tower, formerly known as Stakeheuch, are fragments of the N, S and W walls. (RCAHMS 1981, visited March 1981)
Tower (NR) (remains of) (NAT) (OS 1:10,000 map, 1983)
The remains of this building, which is probably a fortified house of late 16th- or 17th-century date, lie to the rear of a garden plot on the NW side of Auchenrivock steading, from where it would have enjoyed a particularly fine psospect across the valley towards Broomholm. The house was rectangular on plan, measuring 10.3m from N to S by 4.1m transversely over walls up to 0.9m thick and 1.7m high where best preserved (at the N end); the greater part of the E wall and part of the adjoining S wall have been removed by robbing. The interior was divided into two compartments, the smaller, on the N, containing a newel-stair of which only the cut-back treads remain. A chamber beneath the stair was lit by a small circular loophole in the N wall. The main apartment at ground floor level was vaulted with a loophole in the W wall (piercing the haunch of the vault and of the same type as that in the N wall) and a mural recess with splayed jambs (possibly a flue) towards the W end of the S wall.
The house possibly occupies the site of the tower-house that was the original seat of the Irving family and was burnt by Sir Christopher Dacre in 1513. (Visited by RCAHMS (IMS), March 1993)
Only a fragment now remains of a tower of the Irvines originally called Stakeheugh. It or a previous tower on this site was burnt in 1513 by Christopher Dacre. (M Salter 1993)
Listed as tower. (RCAHMS 1997)
Comments

The remains are ambiguous as to to form but, on the bases of social status as an early caput of the Irvines and relatively early date (possible in existence in 1513 when 'Stakehughe the manor place of Irewyn' was recorded as being burnt although by a relatively small party of men who reported burnt this manor place and other places all in one morning) probably a small tower of three or more storeys. Not a chamber over byre pele-house but, arguably, might be considered as a 'superior bastle'.
The resident householder c. 1590.

Irvine
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This record created on 08/06/2015 09:46:11; This record last updated on 17/09/2015 11:15:52

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