Excavation

Date 13 October 1997 - 14 November 1997

Event ID 1034095

Category Recording

Type Excavation

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1034095

NS 790 940 An excavation was carried out in October to December 1997 to complete an investigation commenced by trial trenching in the spring of 1997. The area under investigation comprised the Army Kitchens, also known as the Governor's Kitchens, situated in a building on the W edge of the Castle Rock, overlooking the King's Knot (Ewart, Radley, Sharman and Triscott 1997)

The purpose of the excavation was to remove all deposits below the modern floor level in the kitchens down to bedrock or undisturbed archaeological horizons worthy of retention.

Early plans and maps show clearly the existence of the building at various times from the later 17th century onwards, and it is thought that a building has stood on the site since before the 15th century, and possibly from as early as the 12th century, the chapel of Alexander I, built c 1115.

The excavations revealed three phases of activity connected with a chapel site, alongside a well-preserved paved courtyard area. Ten inhumations were excavated, comprising nine adults and one child, as well as a charnel pit. The chapel evidence was overlain by a level containing evidence for the building of an oven and furnace, and by the 18th-century building levels.

Dating evidence was not forthcoming on a large scale, and the historical context of the buildings provides the main interpretive framework for the archaeological evidence presented below. Of particular significance in this regard are the dates spanning 1530-40, during which time the new Palace of James V was being erected, requiring the partial demolition of the earlier building; and the dates around 1710, at which time the Palace was converted to serve a Castle Governor, again affecting the adjoining building to a large extent.

The E room produced the earliest masonry in its SE corner, and this was interpreted as either an early chapel element or a part of the structure to the S of the Army Kitchens. The clearest early structure was a massive sandstone wall running below the present S wall for a distance of 7m. This is interpreted as the surviving remnant of the early chapel, pre-dating the 1530 building programme, but whose absolute date is uncertain. Associated with this early structure were some of the aforementioned burials, aiding the interpretation of the former as part of the chapel site.

At a later date the chapel was resited to the E by a distance of around 5m. A new threshold was laid, and the area to the W was carefully paved over, the paving extending for some 7m as far as a working area to the SW, where it could be seen to cut the earlier surface. Drainage channels in the surface of the paving intimate that it was an exposed area. This second chapel was also disturbed by the creation of the new Palace in 1530, and yielded a single inhumation. The creation of the Palace destroyed around two-thirds of the chapel structure.

The remaining available space comprised the formerly external paved area, defined to the N, S and W by a perimeter wall, and this space became the new chapel after the erection of the Palace. A single inhumation was excavated in the area toward the N wall. This is thought to be the final chapel on the site, falling out of use some time in the 17th century.

The chapel space was then converted to an oven or furnace area. The paved floor of the final chapel was removed, with further mortar debris and chapel debris being added, sealing the bodies beneath the new floor. A fire of some form was then centrally placed on this surface, surviving as a large, circular burnt area in the centre of the floor, measuring some 4m in diameter, with four massive stone plinths set some 3m from the centre of the fire site. These either represent support for a furnace, or support for a modified roof to allow the use of the fire within the room, or both.

As late as 1680, the date of Slezer's illustration of the castle, it would appear that the chapel site survived as a single structure, but by Dury's plan of 1709 a new building occupied the E part of the chapel site. This survives today as the tall square building adjacent to the Palace. The modifications enacted on the third chapel structure at this time involved the realignment of the S wall and the addition of a new W wall, effectively dividing the former space into two equal-sized areas. These two rooms later became the Mess Kitchens and associated quarters, woth chapel structures sealed beneath 150mm of concrete flooring.

Sponsor: Historic Scotland

G Ewart and D Stewart 1998

Kirkdale Archaeology