Excavation

Date 1 November 1992 - 20 November 1992

Event ID 1034059

Category Recording

Type Excavation

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1034059

A short programme of trial excavation was completed within the castle, in advance of new drainage within the basements of the two late 17th century barrack blocks. The causes of the present flooding were due initially to the 1690's ranges having been built outside, and consequently with basements below, the natural rocky outcrop which previously defined the fortified circuit. The measures put in places to collect and conduct storm water from the courtyard - a system of downpipes and probably a subfloor drainage channel - are now blocked and broken.

An apparently deliberate gap was left between bedrock and the basement passage wall, in order to trap water seeping beneath the courtyard facing of the barrack block. It is likely that this was linked in some way with the main drain outflow point in the basement beneath the latrines.

Some structural evidence was found of a building lying towards the NW of the 15th-century Towerhouse and which was demolished in advance of the 1690's building programme. It is possible that the section of much robbed walling referred to as the'North Chalmeris'.

Some indication of pre-15th century occupation of the site was found in terms of a mass of fire-reddened and vitrified masonry, some of it recycled as levelling material within the basement. It is therefore possible that some form of drystone rampart existed on the site which has been absorbed by the late 17th-century extensions to the castle on its N and W sides.

G Ewart 1993

Sponsor: Historic Scotland

Kirkdale Archaeology