Kerse House (site of)

Kerse House was a largely 18th and 19th century mansion which incorporated an earlier tower house within its structure.

Carss Castell is marked on Pont’s late 16th century map as a substantial tower within a wooded enclosure, and castle within the vicinity was referred to in a Royal Charter of 1508. An apparent settlement named West Carse is depicted just to the east of the castle and the West Kerse estate is mentioned in 1289.

Between December 2011 and January 2012 archaeological investigations revealed the core of the house to be a late medieval thick-walled rectangular building which was interpreted as a probable tower house. The tower was originally surrounded by drainage ditches which were back-filled in the 18th century during one of five phases of significant expansion.

Kerse House was vacated early in the 20th century and demolished in 1957 and the site now falls within an industrial estate between Grangemouth and the River Carron.