I came across this wondrous word yesterday when I visited Smailholm Tower, near Kelso in the Scottish Borders. It’s: Barmkin and here is a photo –
A Barmkin is a stone perimeter wall, built to protect the courtyard and tower. This one at Smailholm was originally 6 ft thick, although most of it is a ruinous state now. My photo shows it at the western end where it remains with the only entrance gate into the courtyard.
I like the sound of this Scots word which is thought to be a corruption of the word barbican, meaning the outer fortified defence of a city or castle.
Wondrous Words Wednesday is a weekly meme created by Kathy at BermudaOnion, where you can share new words that you’ve encountered or spotlight words you love.
BooksPlease 
Very interesting word for a wall.
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I love that you found a word in your travels! I like the sound of the word too but don’t think I can use it unless I make it to Scotland.
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Cool word and picture! I bet its related to the word ‘barbarian.’ Do you think?
Imagine a wall 6 feet thick! They don’t make ’em like that anymore – LOL!
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Beautiful word and picture. The word has great character and I’ll bet it sounds wonderful when spoken by someone with great Scottish brogue.
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Barmkin! Hee! I love it. It’s a great word.
Here are my Words.
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That sounds very technical, architecture has so many words… good to know! Thanks for sharing!
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Barmkin is such a fabulous word, and I love that it possibly comes from barbican- that was one of my WWW last week.
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Well it’s a new one on me and as you know – I’m Scottish. I bet you I come across it somewhere in the next week! Thanks for the info.
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