Excavation

Date September 2015 - October 2016

Event ID 1040091

Category Recording

Type Excavation

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1040091

NG 8812 2583 (NG82NE 3) An open area excavation was undertaken at Eilean Donan Castle in September and October 2015 and 2016, continuing the excavation work of 2010. Excavation focused on the NW tower and associated curtain walls to the N and W. A small early internal castle building was defined and excavated adjacent to the NW tower. The building, which measured c3.0 x 2.0m, was furnished with a lime mortar floor and may have had a service function. The building was used for rubbish disposal in its last phase. Subsequently, evidence for a castle smithy was excavated and overlay the earlier building slightly. A working floor rich in hammerscale, a large assemblage of ironworking slags and a large rotary grindstone were recorded in the smithy deposits. Adjacent deposits yielded a significant assemblage of vitrified clay crucible fragments relating to the casting of non-ferrous metals. The smithy and metalworking is thought to date to the 15th century.

Excavation of the W curtain wall established that it had been comparatively modest, only c1.0m wide, and connected to a previously unidentified tower at its southern end, which was manifest as a substantial mortar-bonded masonry building of which only the N corner was visible.

Further exploration of the thickened N curtain wall identified a previously unknown lime kiln and a further possible interval-tower stance. The interval-tower was identified close to the eastern limit of intervention and had suffered from truncation during the restoration phase, but was obvious as lime-mortar bonded blocks projecting from the line of the curtain wall.

The lime kiln cut into the thickened wall and was revealed as a horse-shoe shaped, deep below-ground structure which partially lay beyond the limit of intervention. Excavation identified the remains of the last firing overlain by a closing deposit of animal bone and shellfish thought to derive from household butchery, hunting and fishing waste. The kiln is thought to be 16th-century in date and may have been built to provide mortar for a programme of remodelling and rebuilding.

Inside the N curtain wall a possible building stance was identified through a deposit rich in structural ironwork and artefactual material. Artefacts included coins, arrowheads, part of an iron jew’s harp and an antler hair parter or gravoir, which is believed to be the only example from medieval

Scotland.

Archive: Post-excavation work is ongoing. Report: NRHE (intended)

Funder: Conchra Charitable Trust

Nicola Toop – FAS Heritage

(Source: DES, Volume 18)