RCAHMS Afforestable Land Survey, Craigievar

Date July 1994 - October 1994

Event ID 1094812

Category Project

Type Project

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1094812

RCAHMS Afforestable Land Survey Programme

Craigievar, Grampian.

Agricultural improvements in an area of 100 sq km (OS mapsheets NJ51SE/SW, NJ50NE/NW) around Craigievar Castle have destroyed much of the archaeology, but some monuments survive in pockets of unimproved ground. Of particular note is a cluster of small ring-cairns to the south of Lumphanan (NJ50SE 35.01; NJ50SE 35.02). Work on this survey has now been completed and the results have been deposited in the NMRS.

Fieldwork was undertaken by Messrs. S D Boyle, D C Cowley, P J Dixon and J B Stevenson, with drawing and survey work by Mr A Leith, Ms G Brown and Mr I Parker. Some 122 structures were recorded, using standard ALS procedures (RCAHMS 1993, 5), producing a database (CRAIG94) which forms the primary archive for the survey. The database is available as both a bound manuscript (MS 731/14) and as a .csv file (DX 001431) while associated linework is available as collection item TM 000356.

Information from HES (GFG), 27 January 2021

(RCAHMS Annual Review 1995-6, 18; Annual Review 1994-5, 16)

People and Organisations

Related Event(s)

Event	Type	Subtype	Notes	Date
763723	RECORDING	FIELD VISIT	NJ51SW 46 5446 1328 [...]	24 August 1994
1113575	RECORDING	FIELD VISIT	This ruinous Z-plan tower-house is situated in the front garden of Asloun House. It has been reduced to a substantial portion of a round tower, which formed the SE end of the building, and a fragment of the NE side of the hall. The ground-floor of the hall was stone-vaulted and lit by slit windows. There appear to have been window openings at both ground- and first-floor levels in the return between the tower and the SE end of the hall block, of which that at first-floor level has holes for a iron-grill. The principal entrance was through the tower, which also provided access, via a turnpike stair, to the first floor. Round gun-loops are visible in the basement of the tower, and the openings in the tower are decorated with quirked roll-mouldings that date the castle from the mid-16th to the early-17th century. The upper floor of the tower, indicated externally by a roll-moulded string-course, appears to have provided private accommodation, accessible only from the main body of the castle, with a larger window opening to light it. There is a recess for an armorial over the entrance and another above a slit window at first-floor level. Although both armorials have been removed, it is likely that the lower recess was occupied by the arms of the occupant and the upper by those of the feudal superior (I Fisher, pers. comm.). [...]	25 August 1994
764518	RECORDING	FIELD VISIT	NJ50NE 34 5529 0632 [...]	24 August 1994