Watching Brief

Date 4 November 2013 - 5 May 2014

Event ID 1013023

Category Recording

Type Watching Brief

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1013023

NT 2515 7348 In response to water ingress within the W half of the N side of the Scottish National War Memorial, an irregular area of concrete screed at the base of the outside face of the N wall was removed in stages under archaeological supervision. The work which was undertaken, 3 March – 30 September 2014, showed that the concrete extended W, along the full length of the N wall from its junction with the centrally placed semi-octagonal apse. The present building is the latest in a series of major structures on the same site and was built between 1924 and 1927. The concrete was a single and extremely compacted deposit filling a series of shallow declivities within the bedrock. These were the result of clearance and quarrying activities associated with a small complex of early 19th-century service structures including a cookhouse and washhouse, which lay immediately N of the 18th-century barrack block, which was partly recycled to create the present Scottish National War Memorial.

Alan Radley 2015

Sponsor: Historic Scotland

Kirkdale Archaeology

OASIS ID: kirkdale1-279007