436 Mr. Tate on Harhottle Castle. 



would take two tons of iron, costing for the iron, £9, and 

 £5 10s. for the workmanship; mounds of debris indicate its 

 site. A tower was on the north, with a good timber roof, 

 but wanting a covering of lead, and doors and windows. 

 From this north tower, to the keep, the compass of the wall 

 was thirty roods, ten of which must be new made. The 

 outer wall was six feet thick, and twenty-seven feet high, 

 and the repair of the whole would cost £150. Within the 

 outer bailey were the stables, which were in ruins ; and their 

 repair, so as to accommodate one hundred horses, and 

 making above them garners for corn and lodging chambers, 

 would cost £100. Of these buildings, and of the outer wall, 

 there are few traces ; but the fosse around the keep, and 

 that also around the enceinte, are still very distinct, 



" It is marvalus needfulle," says the Survey, " for the re- 

 lief of the countrie, in time of warre, to have a new barm- 

 kyne mayd, where the old barmkyne was, which wall con- 

 tenes in lengthe xxx rode, with a little gaythouse at the 

 comynge to the said barmkyne, wych gaytehouse yet standes 

 ajoynynge before the gayttes of the castelle, the barmkyne 

 wall must be four yards hye, and a yard thyke, and the costs 

 and charges hereof, by estimation, Ix /e." Of this barmkyne, 

 which stood on the north-east, there are now no remains. 

 The cost of the whole reparations was estimated at £443 

 2s. 4d., exclusive of the purchase of fourteen fothers of lead. 



When Bowes and Ellerker surveyed Harbottle Castle, in 

 1542, it was still ruinous and decayed. William Parr, de- 

 scribing its state in 1543, calls it the key, and most necessary 

 place for the conservation of Redesdale, but so extremely de- 

 cayed and ruined, that garrisons could not remain there 

 without imminent peril and danger from the fall of the walls 

 and timber. Bowes, in 1546, urged that the castle should be 

 taken into the King's hands, as neither the owner nor his 

 ancestors had, for a long time past, done any reparation ; 

 and, after this, some reparations were made, but in an ina- 

 dequate manner, for Sir William Bowes, when again report- 

 ing on the state of the Marches in 1550, says : — " The King's 

 castle of Harbottle is assigned to the keeper of Redesdale, 

 and standeth very conveniently for the same. It was, of 

 late, in extreme ruin, and is partly reparated ; albeit, there 

 is not, in the said castle, either hall, kitchen, or brewhouse; 

 and the prisons, also, be not sufficiently strong nor large 

 enough to contain so many prisoners as at some times shall 

 be requisite to be had in ward there." 



