58 Report of Meetings for 1SS7. By J. Hardy. 



powerful famil}' of the Pringles, who in subsequent years found 

 comfortable nests for themselves all throughout half of the Border 

 counties. The original residence would be a Border peel on a 

 then craggy and bare hill side. Torsonce mansion stands on the 

 foundations of the old peel, a pretty edifice of red brick with 

 white freestone angles, with a finely laid out garden on the south- 

 west, and the hill side is covered with trees — a charming residence 

 on a highly picturesque height, overlooking the soft and peaceful 

 vale of the Gala. 



The visitors on emerging from Torsonce policy, turned footsteps 

 towards Bowland, four miles or so farther down the vale. The 

 estate was reached by the old road on the north-west side of the 

 valley without anything notable having been crossed. While 

 the party was resting on the height above Bowland tunnel, one 

 of the party (Mr Wilson) pointed to a peaked hill on Bow farm, 

 on the opposite side of the valley on which is a ruin the Ordnance 

 Survey have mapped as "Bow Castle." The side of the hill 

 towards the river is very craggy, almost precipitous, and has 

 evidently been scarped in " the ice age " by a flow of ice from a 

 south-westerly direction. The north-east side of the hill, it was 

 explained, is a gentle slope of a mile or so towards Halkburn. 

 The peak on which the ruin is perched, is on the very margin of 

 the cliff. On it is a small plateau, around the margin of which 

 has at one time been carried a wall of several feet in thickness 

 built without any cement. This wall is approximately circular 

 in form, and at one side has been carried down the slope for some 

 distance, 100 yards or so of it being still traceable to where it 

 has been cut off by cultivation. The space enclosed by this wall 

 is about 80 feet in width, the longer axis of the oval about 120 

 feet. The foundations of a drystone wall five feet in thickness, 

 can still be traced in the interior of this space, and constitute 

 what the Survey have designated the castle. The space enclosed 

 by this second wall is 51 by 44 feet. Certain characteristics 

 were pointed out as evidently connecting this work with old earth 

 works on many of the Border hills, universally admitted to be 

 the work of Britons, though of what date still requires determin- 

 ation. At the same time, the Bow Castle presented many obvious 

 differences in type when compared with these earthworks. The 

 impossibility of accepting its erection for any modern purpose, 

 also implied an ancient origin, but the describer could not offer 

 any definite suggestion as to when it was built, nor for what 

 purpose, nor by whom, 



