Remains of Fallowlees Bastle, Hollinghill. Photo by Peter Ryder.

A bastle built some time after the 1541 survey at Fallowlees. The foundations can still be traced. (1)

At Fallowlees are the ruins of a substantial pele or bastle house which has not been recorded but which no doubt was the refuge of William Veitch the Covenantor. (2)

A message, now ruined, situated on a dodd, or conical hill, about half a mile south-east of Fallowlees. (3)

NZ 01999435 The remains of the building are incorporated into the garden wall and outbuildings east-north-east of the cottage called Fallowlees.
Only the north and part of the west walls remain, but there are surface indications of the buried foundations of the south and east walls. The building was 12.9m long with an approximate width of 8.5m. The entrance appears to have been centrally placed in the south wall. The remains of the north and west walls are 1.1m thick and constructed of very large undressed stones. The only architectural feature remaining is in the west wall where there is a slit window, splayed internally and constructed of four massive stones occupying the whole thickness of the wall. The two remaining walls have a maximum height of 1.9m and are in fair condition.
The remains are those of a defended house similar to others in the region and dating from the late 16th to early 17th centuries.
NZ 02679419. The ruin referred to by Hodgson is a steading 38m long and 6m wide with five cross divisions and a garth attached to the north-west corner. It appears to have been a row of small cottages of no great age or architectural interest. (4)

Condition unchanged. (5)

The remotely sited farm of Fallowlees lies in the headwaters of the River Font, above the Fontburn Reservoir and is now largely surrounded by the plantations of Harwood Forest.
The ruins of the bastle lie a short distance to the north east of the present farmhouse. The bastle has been a rectangular structure c.13m long with walls 1.15m thick; the lower parts of the north west wall and the adjacent half of the south west end survive. The width of the building is no longer discernible, although if the slit in the end wall were central (as usual) this would have been c.7.2m. There are also remains of a tapering slit in the centre of the long north west wall; both slits have single large sandstone slabs for jambs, lintel and sill. The bastle has large and quite well squared quoins and walling of large roughly squared blocks with some galleting. The western corner stands to 2.5m high. There are remains of a later building attached to the south west end and the footings of an enclosure wall running from the northern corner. There are no visible indications of either entrance or any other part of the south wall. (6)

Scheduled. (7)

Fallowlees bastle was built between 1541 and 1581. Listed by Cathcart King and by Dodds. (8a)(8b)