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Bastle House
Bastle Houses are generally two-storey fortified farmhouses, with living accommodation on the first floor and shelter for cattle and sheep on the ground floor. They were built around the Anglo-Scottish border areas, during times of frequent attacks and raids by the Border Reivers, and hostilities between England and Scotland. Typically, Bastle Houses were homes and refuges for rich freeholders, lairds and heads of Border clans. Bastles were often built in clusters, so that the inhabitants were within easy reach of their neighbours, providing support for each other. Some of the more wealthy landowners had Pele Towers, which were taller than bastles, usually with three or four storeys.