Walls to the South Court

MATERIALS: constructed of pennant rubble stone set in red loam and tightly bonded. There is a crenellated parapet to all except the south wall.

PLAN: it is a large rectangular enclosure measuring c75m north-south by 70m west-east. The mid-C19 barn at the south-east corner and the C19 outbuildings at the north end of the east wall are not of special interest.

DESCRIPTION: the walls to the SOUTH COURT are 0.8m wide at their base, tapering to 0.6m, and have a maximum height of 3.8m to the top of the crenellated parapet. Parts of both the west and east walls survive to their original full height, elsewhere the walls have been rebuilt in the late C20. The walls have a number of embrasures, those to the south wall have been infilled and there are single rows of putlogs in the west and east walls. The west wall of the court butted against the corner buttress of the west range of the house, while the east boundary wall originally terminated short of the south-east corner of the building; a short section of wall was constructed to fill this gap in the early C19. The west wall has a projecting rectangular bastion towards its north end and each of its faces has a slit window with deep internal splays. At the south-west corner is a circular tower that projects out beyond the court. It has an internal diameter of 2.1m with a doorway set across the corner; part of its south-east jamb survives and there is a reconstructed flight of steps to a viewing platform. It is likely that there was a second tower at the south-east corner of the court, but this may have been demolished when the mid-C19 barn was constructed at the east end of the south wall. The position of the original mid-C16 gateway in the south wall cannot be determined since the wall was largely rebuilt in the C19 and a new entrance inserted. The east wall is continuous and a straight joint towards its northern end is considered to mark the position of a further bastion which was removed to make way for an outbuilding erected against the external face of the wall.