Excavation
Date 7 July 2017 - 30 September 2017
Event ID 1039596
Category Recording
Type Excavation
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1039596
NT 17399 74698 (NT17SE 62) An excavation programme, undertaken over 4 days between 7 July 2017 and 30 September 2017, aimed to establish the extent of any remains of the mansion house known as Cammo House, the outline of which was lost when it was demolished in 1979.
Trench one was a training trench for visitors to the open days (6–7 July 2017). Trench two was placed 4.9m from the NE corner of the ruin of Cammo House. Here we found a flagged floor, beside a small area of cobbling. A drain abutted the wall within the flagged area. On extending the trench 2m to the W we found the remains of a wall.
Two small trial pits were dug to trace the path of the wall NW. At 12m from the ruin we dug Trench three (1.55 x 1.40m) in which we found the wall return.
Trench four was dug 4m from Trench three and this confirmed the trajectory of the back wall of the extension to the original 1693 Cammo House.
More work will be done in 2018 as part of the EAFS Cammo Project to continue our search for the outline of the building.
The number of finds from the Cammo Project must be some kind of record. Over the four days worked so far, some 638 items were retrieved. Of these, 184 were located by a group from the Scottish Detector Club who joined us for the opening weekend. The more interesting retained items
included a tiny pendant (religious object?), a Timex watch, buckles (one possibly 17/18th century), paraffin lamp fittings, dog tags, a musket ball, 1910 Bahrain coin, a book clasp and a small metal alligator. The four trenches excavated at the rear of the house yielded considerable quantities of domestic pottery and glass sherds, including some very thick flat glass, and iron objects. One piece of clay pipe stem was stamped BURNS CUTTY and ........HIE EDINBURGH.
Archive: NRHE and City of Edinburgh Council SMR (intended)
Funder: Edinburgh Archaeological Field Society, Almond Neighbourhood Partnership, Friends of Cammo, and Scottish Detector Club
(Source: DES, Volume 18)
