Bastle house

Tinker houses (also tinker or bastille ) is called a special type of construction of buildings. They are fortified farms that are characterized by different structural measures to protect against attacks. They are found mainly on both sides along the Anglo- Scottish border in areas that have suffered in earlier times under raids of the Border Reivers.

The name derives from the French word " bastille " from.

Description

A typical Bastle house is two stories high and has up to one meter thick walls. The ground floor served both as a storage room for food as well as a stable for the most valuable animals. The ceiling was formed as stone vaults or made ​​of thick beams and had no passage into the overlying first floor. The living and sleeping rooms of the family were in this first floor, they could only be reached via an outside salaried manager. This was brought in to protect against raids at night. The roofs were covered with slate or other stone- loopholes mostly served as a window for ventilation. Tinker houses were also often surrounded by a low stone boundary walls, the interior of which was used as a gate at night for the less valuable animals.

Despite their appearance, they were not pure fortifications, but served as a family home and center of life. This, and their sturdy construction have Bastle houses can survive until today, even though many of these buildings were either exist only as ruins or in the course of time transformed.

Beautiful preserved examples of this type of building, where you can also see the characteristic features are Rothbury, The Pele Hole Bastle, Woodhouse Bastle and Black Middens Bastle.