Site Report

WoSASPIN 5252

(NS 1065 5411) Kelspoke Castle (NR) (Remains of) (NAT)
OS 6" map (1957)

Known locally as Kelspoke Castle, from its situation and appearance, it was probably a watch tower, but that is mere conjecture. Only a part of the SE corner stands, 6' high, the remainder being merely turf-covered footings. It is built of red sandstone, cemented.
Name Book 1895

The remains of Kelspoke Castle (name verified) which lie on high ground comprise an 'L' shaped structure traceable only as footings. The main building at the SE end is 6.0m square and has a section of walling 1.3m high and 1.2m wide surviving in its NE corner. The remainder of the building, poorly defined, is 16.0m long and 5.0m wide. The E wall makes use of a narrow outcropping ridge of sandstone as foundation. (The ruin adjacent to this feature is the old farmstead known as North Kelspoke). Surveyed at 1:10,000.
Visited by OS (BS) 3 November 1976

On level moorland, to the N of Upper Reservoir, are the foundations and some walling of three houses, with a large, squarish yard (c.40m x 40m), and on the slopes to the north very broad and high rig can be seen. The ruin known as 'Kelspoke Castle' is a longhouse 23m x 4.5m of which only a fragment of walling survives, constructed from dressed sandstone mortared with shell sand. The remains of a house bisected diagonally by a ditch survive at the NE corner of the yard. Half of Kelspoke is on record from 1440, although the origin of the term 'castle' is obscure, the settlement was probably abandoned some time between 1848-1860. The site is marked on the following maps: Pont, Roy, Fowlis, Leslie, 0S 1st ed. (ruins) and modern OS ed.'s (castle, rems. of).
Isle of Bute Settlement Survey, information provided to SMR August 1999.
Site report in SMR archive.
Entered WoSAS (NE) 05/06/00.