Barholm Castle

Barholm Castle is an early 17th-century tower house of L-plan form, probably incorporating elements of an earlier rectangular tower. The building comprises a four-storey main rectangular block to the south with a projecting stair tower (or jamb) to the northeast. Though roofless and complete only to eaves, it retains its structural integrity. The only surviving internal floor level is a barrel vault over the ground floor, though the stair tower remains complete to its proper termination.

The walls are built of rubble with quoins of mixed character. At lower levels the quoins are rubble, but above the first floor level they change to squared pinkish sandstone on the main block. The stair tower quoins are rubble only for the first few courses before converting to the same pink sandstone. This gritty pink sandstone is used for most window and door openings, which are either roll-moulded or simply chamfered; ground floor windows have rubble openings.

Evidence of earlier origins is suggested by a blocked doorway in the east wall that formerly gave access to the first floor hall, and by recently excavated stone footings, presumably for a stone forestair, found in 1988. The ground floor of the main block contains a single vaulted chamber without a fireplace. A newel stair occupies the entire width of the stair jamb and rises to the second floor. The first floor hall has a large hearth in the south wall, now somewhat destroyed, with one surviving corbel supporting a massive lintel (now broken) and a relieving arch above. The second floor contains two chambers, each with roll-moulded chimneypieces set in the gable walls, accessed by paired doorways from a passage in the north wall leading off the stair. The stair tower contains a newel stair serving the ground and first floors; above this level the stair is carried in a partly corbelled stair turret set in the re-entrant angle. The third floor is reached by a slightly corbelled-out jamb forming a cap house with fireplace, and at eaves level traces of a flagged wall-walk with typical stepped guttering remain.

The main door is of early 17th-century date with a round arch, roll-moulded jambs, and a crude rope-moulded hood terminating in knotted label stops. The hood-mould is decorated with carved grotesque masks and animals of a type typical to the area. The north wall of the stair tower contains two windows with distinctive ornamental surrounds. The first features a broad square-headed lintel with a shallow sinking cut to form two semi-circular arches, creating a bipartite effect without a mullion. The second has a square-headed lintel with an ogee-shaped sinking similarly cut out. Remaining windows display more restrained detail with roll-mouldings on the first floor hall and simple chamfering elsewhere.

Formerly, two ranges of single-storey farm buildings, probably of 19th-century date, abutted the north wall and formed a courtyard; these have been demolished. A two-storey building once abutted the west gable and has also been demolished.

The castle is now in residential use and was descheduled in 2008. It exemplifies many features typical of 17th-century building in southwest Scotland. Its conjectural early origin parallels that of other regional towers such as Carsluith Castle, Elshieshields Tower in Lochmaben, Dumfriesshire (which also has a blocked first floor entrance), and Buittle Place in Buittle parish, all rectangular towers enlarged L-plan by the addition of a narrow stair jamb. Similar window details appear at Kelburne House in Largs parish, Ayrshire, and Orroland House in Rerrick parish, Stewartry. A single diminutive lintel fragment has been found at Airds Farm in Balmaghie parish, Stewartry. Comparable grotesque masks are found at Carsluith Castle and at Dowies, the Old Place of Monreith, in Penninghame parish, Wigtownshire. The castle forms a group with Barholm Farm.