Recently completed this year these two holiday lets were once the original fortified bastle farmhouse at Portgate Farm, located on the outskirts of Allendale Town in the heart of Northumberland.
The Cottages are within a ten minute walk of all the local conveniences which include a post office, Hairdressers, Butchers, two pubs, Emma’s lovely cafe and the Forge Cafe gallery and gift shop, and an incredibly well stocked Co-op where you can get almost everything you could possibly ever need!
The History of the Bastle:
Bastle houses have extremely thick stone walls about 1 metre thick, the ground floor was stable space for the valuable animals and a vaulted stone or flat timber floor between it and the first floor with internal access such as a stairway or ladder.
The family’s living quarters would have been on the floor above and during the times before the suppression of the Border Reivers and was only reachable by a ladder which was pulled up from the inside at night. The windows were small or even arrow slits.
Bastle houses have characteristics in common with military blockhouses the main difference being that a bastle was intended primarily as a family dwelling, instead of a pure fortification.