Excavation

Date 26 November 2002 - 27 November 2002

Event ID 1034295

Category Recording

Type Excavation

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1034295

Under the terms of its P.I.C. call-out contract with Historic Scotland, Kirkdale Archaeology was asked to undertake archaeological monitoring while a series of machine dug trenches was cut for soil porosity testing, in advance of new drainage for car parking. The area was downhill from the castle approach road, within the open field to the N of the Castle. The castle sits at the summit of a long steady gradient running down towards the Craigmillar housing estate, and featured as a prominent landmark in an 18th and 19th-century designed landscape.

The results of this programme of test trenching suggest there is no obvious archaeological activity towards the E of the large open field. The castle appears to have been approached from the N and on the evidence of these trenches the general area was neither cultivated nor occupied. However, it is possible that the present archaeological sterility is due to a post-medieval programme of clearance and landscaping, in a general attempt to highlight the castle within a more informal park or ‘borrowed landscape’ context.

G Ewart 2002

Sponsor: Historic Scotland

Kirkdale Archaeology