Standing Building Recording

Date 12 July 1999 - 5 August 1999

Event ID 1030227

Category Recording

Type Standing Building Recording

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1030227

Archaeological recording of the S-facing exterior elevation of the Great Hall at Edinburgh Castle was undertaken in July and August 1999, while scaffolding was in place as part of roof renovation works. A new elevation was prepared, accurate to within 50mm, and a total of 41 features were recorded. A detailed photographic record was also prepared. In addition, a range of early plans were consulted in order to place recorded features in a phasing scheme, and to identify whether the roof had been raised in the past.

The following successive building phases can be suggested as a preliminary interpretation:

Phase 1 Original features

It is assumed that the two phases of vaulting below the Crown Square level of the Great Hall are original features. No detailed survey was made of these structures, but obvious alterations and additions were observed. However, the presence of two levels of vault beneath the 16th-century hall is likely. As to original elements of the S wall itself, the openings at wall-walk level, and the masonry associated with them, have been assigned to this original period. The original fabric comprises crudely coursed yellow sandstone. Subsequent repointing has obscured the original bonding medium. The original fabric is now well worn, and has been replaced in places (especially in door and window surrounds) by new masonry. Another original feature is the corbel course beneath the wall-head walk. Although the crenellations at roof level have been altered, the basic layout, with a slightly projecting battlement carried on the sandstone corbels, appears to be an original feature. The large weepers within the corbel course are very worn, as are the corbels themselves, and these may also be an original feature.

Phase 2 Possible changes to the fenestration in the later 17th century, and the conversion to a barrack hall

An illustration by Slezer (late 17th century) appears to show a somewhat altered window pattern from that illustrated by Rothiemay a half century previously. It would appear that large windows may have been added at the W end of the S wall, lighting an interior which was, however, no longer open to the roofspace, having been floored out as a barracks during the 1650s. Subsequent changes to the S wall have removed the archaeological evidence of the changes drawn by Slezer.

A bog-house was butted onto the S wall exterior, and a window (perhaps one of those illustrated by Slezer) was narrowed to a doorway at Crown Square level to allow access to the new structure from within the hall. It would appear that the large windows which had formerly lit the open hall were retained for a period, as these openings appear to be illustrated in Tarrant's plans of the mid-18th century. As with Slezer's alterations, later renovations have removed the archaeological evidence for phase 3 features.

Phase 3 Barrack hall windows

At some point following the Tarrant survey, and pre-dating an 1885 illustration, eight new windows were opened in the S wall, some of which reused one of the reveles of an earlier opening. These windows better reflect the internal sub-divisions within the barrack hall. Traces of three of these windows survive today.

Phase 4 The 1889 restoration

The major alteration made during the 1889 restoration was the addition of the four large windows, lighting the once again open hall. Hyppolite Blanc, the architect responsible, also 'reinstated' the battlement walkway at vault level, and added the crenellated walkway at roof level, supported over the original corbels.

Sponsor: Historic Scotland

A Dunn 1999

Kirkdale Archaeology