(NY 86708466) Peel (GT) (Remains of). (1)

Pele at Hole. (2)

A two-storey gabled stone building, with vaulted ground floor, and outside steps to the upper floor, set upon a rocky rise against an east hill slope, overlooking the River Rede valley to the north, east and south. It is a very fine example of a Bastle house, similar features in the district have been classified as of the 16th/17th century period. The building measures 7m x 10.5m, and is approx 10m high to the eaves, 14m high to the gable top. (3)

Condition unchanged. (4)

Bastles show some variations, but on the whole they are remarkably uniform. The typical bastle is rectangular on plan with external dimensions c.35 x 25 feet. It is of two full storeys and has quite steeply pitched gables. The walls are built of stone in large blocks of irregular shape, the gaps between the blocks being packed with small stone chippings set in a weak mortar with very little lime, about 4 feet thick on the ground floor, thinning to c.3-1/2 feet at first floor level.
The ground floor has a single narrow doorway set in the middle of one of the gable walls. There are no windows on this floor, only ventilation slits. The upper floor is entered by a doorway set towards one end of the long wall approached by an external stone stair which, not being bonded to the main wall is a replacement, probably of a movable ladder. No original bastle roof survives, all present roofs have slate covering, but it is clear that some, at least, were originally covered with thatch, presumably of heather.
Bastles are of interest in many ways: as fortified, or at least, defensible farmhouses peculiar to the Border country, and as the only farmhouses in the British Isles with only a few possible exceptions, which in one building accommodate animals on the ground floor and human beings above.
It has been suggested that these buildings date from the late 16th and early 17th century, supported partly by architectural evidence and partly by their relevance to the peculiar conditions along the Border at that time.
As described in reports of 3.7.56 and 13.10.70. (5)

BELLINGHAM HOLE
6/29 Hole bastle, 20 yards north of Hole farmhouse
Grade II*
Bastle house. 16th century. Long sides heightened and first floor windows added 18th century. Random rubble 4-1/2ft thick with boulder plinth and stone slate roof. Two-1/2 storeys. 35ft by 22ft. Original ground-floor doorway now blocked on left return and later door inserted on right return. Slightly later stone outside stair to original first floor doorway with chamfered surround and rebates for harr-hung door. 18th century windows to either side. Two smaller original windows, re-set above are 16ins x 18ins and have chamfered surrounds with holes for two vertical iron bars. Similar window to rear and two slit windows on right return; also five pigeon holes above alighting ledge in right gable.
Interior has barrel-vaulted ground floor with narrow ladder-hole to first floor. Fireplace on first floor has timber lintel and square recess to right. Rustic wood stair to attic. (6)

(Shielings and Bastles: Ramm, McDowell, Mercer. HMSO. 1970). (7)

Stands on earlier burial mound with topless stone cist immediately to north. 19th century farmbuildings adjoin west end. (8)

Scheduled. (9)

Listed by Cathcart King and by Dodds. (10a-b)