© Mapbox · © OpenStreetMap contributors · Boundary data © Historic Environment Scotland
Wintercleugh is a bastle house situated approximately one kilometre south of Tomont Hill in Lanarkshire, Scotland. Bastle houses were fortified farmsteads built across the Anglo-Scottish border region during the 16th and 17th centuries, constructed to provide secure refuge for livestock and inhabitants during periods of raiding and unrest. The building sits on bedrock of the Gala Group, Telychian-age wacke, typical of the upland terrain characteristic of this border landscape.
The structure reflects the practical defensive architecture evolved by farming families in this strategically vulnerable region. Rather than costly stone castles, bastle houses combined accommodation with integral livestock housing, typically featuring thick stone walls, small windows, and a design that maximised defensive capability whilst serving everyday agricultural purposes. The layout and surviving masonry at Wintercleugh would have enabled occupants to secure both family and animals under one roof during night-time raids.
The site is protected as a scheduled monument under Historic Environment Scotland designation SM5279, recognising its importance as evidence of the material culture and settlement patterns of the border farming communities during the turbulent centuries preceding the 1707 Union of Crowns. The monument contributes to our understanding of how ordinary people adapted their domestic architecture to the realities of cross-border conflict.
Wintercleugh,bastle house 1000m S of Tomont Hill is a scheduled monument protected by Historic Environment Scotland under reference SM5279. View the official record →
Wintercleugh is a bastle house situated approximately one kilometre south of Tomont Hill in Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is designated a Scheduled Ancient Monument by Historic Environment Scotland under reference SM5279.
Wintercleugh,bastle house 1000m S of Tomont Hill is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, legally protected by Historic Environment Scotland — the body responsible for designating and safeguarding heritage sites in Scotland. The official designation reference is SM5279.
Several scheduled monuments lie within 10 km, including Smithwood, bastle house 900m SW of Daerside (3.1 km), Watermeetings,platform settlement 450m W of (3.6 km), Crookedstane,platform settlement 200m E of (3.9 km).
This page is just one thread. A full Aubrey report pulls together 14 strands of Wintercleugh,bastle house 1000m S of Tomont Hill's history, each drawn from the record and mapped to the exact spot:
Every location is different. Not every section appears for every place, only what the historical record actually holds turns up in a report.
Wintercleugh,bastle house 1000m S of Tomont Hill stands on Gala Group, bedrock that formed in the Telychian. The rock here is wacke.