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Archaeological Evaluation

Date 16 April 2008 - 17 April 2008

Event ID 577227

Category Recording

Type Archaeological Evaluation

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/577227

NT 2630 7515 Work was carried out, 16–17 April 2008, ahead of redevelopment. A desk-based assessment suggested that the first significant historical reference to the site was as a possible site of public executions in the 16th–17th centuries. In the 17th century the area was extensively quarried for mortar sand and in around 1800, Shrub House, a small country house and gardens was erected on the site. Shrub House and its gardens were gradually encroached upon by subsequent developments, including the Edinburgh Street Tramways stables and workshops. The horse-drawn trams were replaced by a cable system in the late 19th century, the development of which included the construction of a number of highly decorated brick buildings. The remainder

of the site, including Shrub House, was demolished in the 1960s to be replaced by offices and sheds for East Lothian Transport.

The earliest recorded deposit was of glacial material, overlain with later deposits of windblown sands. The lack

of windblown material toward the NW end of the site was thought to reflect 17th-century quarrying activity. This

quarrying combined with the natural slope of the area accounts for the drop of over 3m in ground level from the

front to the rear of the site.

Fragmentary sandstone walls were identified toward the centre of the site and these were thought to represent

buildings associated with the Tramway Companys stores and stables, as depicted on the OS map of 1877.

Trenches excavated on the site of the former Shrub House revealed that the structure had been entirely demolished and the site comprehensively levelled. The only structural remains in the trenches relating to buildings erected in the 1970s.

Archive: RCAHMS

Funder: Developer

Kate Bain (Headland Archaeology Ltd), 2008

People and Organisations

References