Excavation

Date 10 May 2016 - 31 May 2016

Event ID 1023977

Category Recording

Type Excavation

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1023977

NT 25959 73201 An excavation was undertaken, 10–31 May 2016, ahead of the construction of student accommodation at Potterrow. The excavations were required after a previous evaluation revealed surfaces and walls related to possible 19th-century building remains.

The excavation, which covered 28 x 18m, at first revealed similar archaeological remains to those encountered in the evaluation. Several cobbled surfaces that show re-use of the site as an internal courtyard were revealed to the S of a large sandstone wall that forms the S gable of a probable 18th and 19th-century tenement. However, along with these late, post-medieval and modern features, were remnants of walls and

surfaces that may relate to earlier periods.

The presence of a probable turnpike staircase at the front of the tenement building suggests that the earliest use of the structure predates the courtyards found initially. This was proven by the discovery of earlier courtyard remnants associated with a well, coal store and sunken-floored outbuildings underneath the later cobbles. This phase would also have contained the road or close to the E of the tenement structure that was later cut by the redevelopment of the tenements.

Finally, the earliest phase of site use could date to the 16th century, and it included a large kiln/furnace associated with a thick walled, dry stone structure that does not appear to relate to the street front of Potterrow. Several cut features were also found under the earlier garden soils that could predate the kiln/furnace and dry stone structure.

Archive: NRHE (intended)

Funder: KR Developments

Information from Nicholas Johnstone and Kevin Paton (AOC Archaeology Group) June 2016. OASIS ID: aocarcha1-254068

(Source: DES, Volume 17)