Excavation

Date November 1996 - 23 June 1997

Event ID 1084890

Category Recording

Type Excavation

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1084890

NS 790 940 A series of excavations were undertaken at Stirling Castle by Kirkdale Archaeology during 1996-7, as part of the ongoing refurbishments to the buildings in the Upper and Lower Squares.

W wall of the Great Hall

Three 1sqm holes were opened against the W side of the Great Hall, on top of the transe vault. Surviving patches of harling on the wall of the Great Hall provided samples for analysis. The top of the transe had been revealed before in excavations.

Army kitchens

Two small rooms were investigated in the E end of the building used as the army kitchens between the S end of the King's Old Buildings and the NW corner of the palace. The aim was to reduce the levels in these rooms by approximately 0.8m in order to provide an access route from the palace porch via a currently blocked doorway into the range. The grey stone paving slabs were removed by a Historic Scotland squad.

It would seem that up to almost 1m of deposits survive below the floor of the army kitchen range, including important information about the medieval castle. The presence of graves indicates that the shell of this building may, despite its later appearance, be that of the other chapel at the castle, possibly that used for private worship by the monarchy, situated as it is between the King's Old Buildings and what is thought to be the site of the queen's lodgings.

The Transe

An excavation was undertaken within the transe on the W side of the Great Hall, with the intention of excavating to bedrock and recording the structure itself. The uncovering of setts in the S part of the transe meant that the brief was changed in order to leave the surface in situ.

The features in the transe fell into seven basic phases, the first one being that which encompassed the worn surface of the bedrock and the surviving patches of surfaces earlier than the transe wall, giving some idea of what the ground surface was like when the Great Hall was constructed at the end of the 15th century. It may be that the lower doors and the window were visible giving an added impression of height to the Hall. It is possible that the W transe wall was built at the same time as the Great Hall, in order to support the lean-to roof which ran along its W side. No evidence was found for the method of access to the main door of the Great Hall. It is assumed that a bridge across the unroofed transe to the door is the most likely solution, although the Chapel Royal prior to the upstanding building would have blocked this access somewhat. The surface of the transe floor yielded no evidence for a staircase against the face of the Hall.

The fourth phase was that of the E-W transe added to the N side of the Great Hall, with a lean-to storey on top, presumably done at some point in the 16th century. The uncertainty of the structural sequence at the N end of the transe possibly reflects a complicated sequence of construction and adaptation of upstanding structures in order to support the range and/or the later vestibule built to connect the Great Hall and the Chapel Royal in the 17th century. There is evidence of a blocked door in the return of the Great Hall and the vestibule in the Upper Square, a feature which would probably have been reflected structurally in the transe. The vaulting of the transe must have happened prior to this and almost certainly before the new Chapel Royal was built at the end of the 16th century, because the chapel takes account of the raised level of the Upper Square.

Many of the features in the transe belong to phase 6, the period of the army's occupation of the castle. The doorways into the Hall were blocked up and turned into windows, new doors were inserted, cobbled and flagged surfaces laid, services introduced and so on, reflecting the need to turn a royal residence into a functioning garrison. Features belonging to the 20th century reflect the patching of damage done during the previous phase and the use of the castle as a heritage resource.

Area between the Upper and Lower Squares

Historic Scotland wished to adjust the shape of the ramped access between the Upper and Lower Squares to take account of the threshold levels of the doors into the transe and Great Hall basement respectively which had previously been exposed by archaeological excavation. Kirkdale Archaeology were engaged to reduce the existing level to provide a base for a new road surface. The bedrock proved to be generally too high for the proposed base level and the whole area was cleared to bedrock rather than the levels initially required.

During the excavation, it was decided to reroute the existing services along the line of a storm drain running parallel to the E face of the palace. The previous cut was reopened and adapted, during which several archaeological features were noted.

A narrow trench (2-3m wide) was initially opened along the N face of the palace before being ultimately widened to meet the S face of the Upper Square retaining wall and below the bridge between palace and Great Hall. The earliest features encountered were interpreted as an oven and a hearth, and were dated to the 15th century. These were overlain with a crudely metalled surface dated to the 16th century, although it was unclear whether this deposit was earlier or later than the palace building.

Monitoring of the re-excavation of a storm drain trench

The most striking feature identified in a second trench was the massive wall base. This had been previously recorded and its line is preserved in the pattern of setts of the present courtyard surface as with the lines of early chapel walls in the Upper Square. This feature seems too solidly built to be merely a domestic structure and, if the N-S wall is the foundation platform for the palace, is most likely to be an integral part of the Fair Front or the earlier defences.

A midden deposit was of interest because it did not appear to be specifically domestic in origin but perhaps more likely to be associated with stable or byre waste.

The evidence clearly confirms surprisingly high archaeological potential within the Lower and Upper Squares where the natural profile of the bedrock can preserve relatively deep deposits of occupation material together with structural remains.

G Ewart, A Radley, P Sharman and J Triscott 1997

Sponsor: Historic Scotland

Kirkdale Archaeology