Excavation

Date 28 June 2001 - 30 August 2001

Event ID 1031800

Category Recording

Type Excavation

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1031800

A watching brief was undertaken in June 2001 during the excavation of two trenches. Trench 1 was excavated in advance of a commemorative tree planting. The trench lay on the enhanced natural terrace which defines the S side of 'The Peel' - the area of parkland which extends to the W and SW of the palace. It is likely that the terrace formed part of the access route to the main entrance to the palace (in its W range).

There was no trace of the approach road to the palace. It appears that the profile of the terrace is either largely natural, or represents the importation of a massive amount of redeposited natural sandy soils, as part of a major landscaping programme of the natural slope S of the loch. In either case, the soils revealed to a depth of 1m were essentially clean mixtures of sandy gravelly silt with water-washed stones throughout.

Trench 2 involved the removal of a series of crude wooden steps, where a shallow trench was cleared to receive new steps. The steps run from a platform at the head of a shallow harbour, next to a boatshed, up a prominent linear earthwork which lies on the W side of the harbour.

The shoreline of the loch which lies to the N of the Palace Peel is currently adapted for pleasure craft access, anchorage and beaching, centred generally around the small harbour. The creation of the latter has clearly rationalised the natural loch side as well as any residual earthworks. The excavation did not shed any light on the date of the bank but showed at least that it was not modern. The upper fabric of the bank was also not a natural deposit scarped to form the bank; rather it was a deliberate dump of material. There was no sign of any revetting deposit other than the present turf line, but this appears to have been levelled off, giving the bank its rather flattened top surface. The bank appears to be either part of some sort of truncated artillery work or some early jetty/wharf arrangement, in association with a similar N-S aligned bank lying some 25m further W.

Sponsor: Historic Scotland

G Ewart 2001

Kirkdale Archaeology