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Archaeology Notes

Event ID 667542

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/667542

NJ50NE 6.00 56678 09486

NJ50NE 6.01 56616 09543 Mains of Craigievar

NJ50NE 6.02 c. 566 095 coach house

NJ50NE 6.03 5661 0958 kennels

NJ50NE 6.04 5605 0946 dovecot

(NJ 5667 0948) Craigievar Castle (NR)

OS 1:10,000 map, 1979.

Craigievar Castle, fully described, illustrated and planned by the National Trust.

W D Simpson nd.

Craigievar Castle, as described in the National Trust pamphlet.

Visited by OS (AA) 26 September 1968.

A 1:20 scale plan and elevations were drawn of the barmkin wall at Craigievar Castle. Originals are with the National Trust for Scotland, copies in Grampian Regional Council SMR.

M K Greig 1988; I A G Shepherd 1986.

Excavations at Craigievar Castle revealed most of the lowest course of the 16th century E barmkin wall and a part of the S wall. Two stone drains of the same period were also uncovered. No evidence remained of any internal structures apart from a few postholes. Finds included 16th to 19th century pottery and glass fragments, pieces of clay pipes, two circular stone gaming pieces and four coins. The coins were: an English silver sixpence of Elizabeth I, dated 157? (1573-1577); a Scottish Billon hardhead (2d) of James VI, dated 1588; a Scottish copper penny of James VI, dated 1614 or 1623; a Scottish copper Turner (2d) of Charles II, dated 1663.

Sponsor: National Trust for Scotland.

M K Greig 1990b.

Begun by Mortimer and completed 1626 by William Forbes, timber merchant. A stepped L-plan tower-house of seven storeys with elaborate treatment of upper parts, 2-storey angle turrets, a re-entrant tower, balustraded flat roofs on towers and ogee-capped stair-turrets; it is harled and the W wall of the barmkin remains. Vaulted ground floor, 1st floor vaulted with fine plaster surface decoration (similar to Glamis and Muchalls) and original screens in passage. Re-roofed in 1826 when repairs executed by John Smith of Aberdeen included altering and raising towers and a new entrance door (subsequently restored).

Excvavation has revealed the basal course of the barmkin wall; all excavation records and small finds will be deposited with the NTS after publication.

(GRC/AAS ground and air photographs listed).

Information from Aberdeenshire Archaeological Service, June 1997.

NMRS, MS/712/19.

NJ 5660 0952. A watching brief was required during the installation of a water main to Craigievar Castle and the estate buildings. The work uncovered modern pottery and glass around the Mains Cottages, and a linear, charcoal-lined, ditch-like feature 4m E of the old coach building. The pipeline did not pass close by the castle and so no disturbance occurred in that area.

Sponsor: National Trust for Scotland

D Hind 1998.

NJ 566 094 The strengthening of the lightning protection at the castle involved the hand excavation, in April 2002, of two trenches c 70cm square by c 60cm deep. These revealed rubble, possibly from the destroyed barmkin wall, overlain by a 19th-century midden.

Between May and June 2002, a trench dug alongside the W wall of the castle, in order to test drainage problems, revealed the shallow nature of the castle foundations at this point.

Archive to be deposited in the NMRS.

Sponsor: NTS

J C Murray 2002

People and Organisations

References