GeoGraph - photograph every grid square

High Shaw Bastle

High Shaw is a well-preserved bastle of C16 or C17 date. It stands on gently sloping ground above the steep slopes of Watty's Sike. It is built from massive stone blocks and stands one-storey high. The upper storey may have been dismantled. The basement has a stone vault and has a hole for a ladder in the ceiling. Above the ground floor a chamfered string course - the only bastle to possess this feature. Triangular opening, probably a gun loop, in east end. Interior: walls c.64 inches thick. Segmental tunnel vault with ladder hole only c.12 inches square. Doorway is rebated and has drawbar holes. In west wall a roughly-made recess with a vertical shaft in the thickness of the wall and a well-dressed triangular opening through the wall, possibly a gun loop (cf exterior).