Watching Brief

Date 19 January 2011

Event ID 964496

Category Recording

Type Watching Brief

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/964496

NS 3282 7452 A watching brief was maintained on 19 January 2011 during the excavation of a small trench for the installation of a new stair in the wine cellar of the N range of Newark Castle. This small hole confirmed that the stair at the N end of the chamber sits over at least two more courses of masonry. Despite the fact that this range is thought to be a late 16th-century building, overlying the traces of an early 15th-century hall-like structure, the infill and the possibility of the stair being cut within an earlier wall suggest that the N wall of this room may predate the late 16th-century re-working. It is difficult to see why the floor level has been so radically raised, unless it was to rationalise a new general floor level for the passage and stair arrangement at ground floor level for the new range, which incorporated parts of the hall-like structure. All thresholds respect the newly raised floor level.

Archive: RCAHMS (intended)

Funder: Historic Scotland

Information from Gordon Ewart (Kirkdale Archaeology) 31 January 2011. OASIS ID - kirkdale1-171109