NTS Recording Event
Date February 2000 - May 2000
Event ID 976185
Category Recording
Type Field Visit
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/976185
A1 The Tower, Drum Castle.
The buildings at Drum and their archaeology are largely outwith the scope of the present study, except insofar as some understanding of them is necessary to appreciate their inter-relationship with the development of the landscape and their functions and aesthetics as features within the landscape. Outline descriptions of all the principal buildings are given in Section 4.3, including the castle and tower. Here some archaeological findings of past investigations of the Tower and its environs are summarised.
Excavations were carried out by Moira Grieg for NTS in 1991 in the upper hall of the Tower and revealed at least five phases of use. These included:
1) A primary construction layer with wood chips and carpentry debris lying on top of the lower vault infill, which consisted of earth with an occasional turf and patches of moss or peat. On top of this infill were found an iron arrowhead, a piece of fabric and a short length of thin rope made from vegetable fibre.
2) The floor debris from a first occupation phase from which the remains of a leather shoe were recovered. Enough survived to reveal the technique of manufacture as being of possible early 14th century date.
3) A second occupation layer with two post-holes but no datable artefacts.
4) Remains of a screen and passageway along the east end of the hall, with associated occupation debris and sparse remains of the collapsed screen. Two post-holes and two possible stone post-plinths lay in the north-east corner along with a small patch of cobbles, in the vicinity of where the stairs to the upper floor had stood.
5) A post-screen occupation. A number of small bronze or copper pins and a few small sherds of pottery were recovered from the passageway area.
Over 50 masons’ marks were observed while checking stonework of the hall and newel stair.
Kirkdale Archaeology excavated a trench against the west end of the south façade of the castle in advance of new drainage work in 1996. Evidence for the clearance and levelling of the bedrock prior to 18th century construction work was noted, alongside possible masons’ waste and the drain associated with the new 18th century structure.
A watching brief was undertaken to observe the excavations for a dehumidifier soakaway for the chapel and a drain sump by the western front of the castle respectively. Neither trench contained any finds or features (Hind 1998, 8).
A resistivity survey of the south lawn area in 1988 by the University of Bradford’s Department of Archaeological Sciences, to investigate the gardens which are likely to have existed there prior to 1780s or 1790s.
(DRU00A1) Information from NTS (BNM) March 2014.
