Field Visit

Date March 2018

Event ID 1104464

Category Recording

Type Field Visit

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1104464

NY 02537 65469 A walkover survey of Castle Wood at Caerlaverock was undertaken, March 2018, complemented by historic map research. Castle Wood encompasses both the ‘old’ and ‘new’ castle remains and most of their surrounding earthworks, and forms a sub-rectangular block c1km wide. A LiDAR survey by HES revealed a complex palimpsest of old enclosures and field boundaries beneath the tree canopy, and helped us to sub-divide the wood into compartments for the purposes of the assessment. The objective of the work was to enhance the understanding of the property in care’s (PIC182) relationship with the surrounding wooded landscape.

The Maxwell’s built the ‘old’ castle around 1220; it was abandoned around 1270 when the ‘new’ castle was built, and the area is believed to have been wooded then too, based on pollen evidence. This ‘new’ castle continued to be developed into the early 17th century until a siege in 1640 rendered it a ruin. The first castle is beside an old harbour, thought to be contemporary with it, and showing how the shoreline has gradually shifted several hundred metres further S since then.

Based on the survey evidence, our working hypothesis is that small patches of early woodland survive at Caerlaverock, often on old boundary features, overlain by a much wider patchwork of improvement period oak plantings (mostly subsequently coppiced), interspersed with semi-natural wet woodlands and modern plantations. The improvement era planting of oak followed the drier upstanding old boundaries and the better drained open areas, some of them probably fields in medieval times, while wet alder-dominated woodland persisted in the lower wetter areas in between. New improvement era drains and enclosing banks were also created, evidence of continued economic investment in this wood after occupation of the castle ceased. The majority of oaks were coppiced, the last cut probably being in the early 19th century based on approximate ring counts of a couple of fallen stems.

Despite the still-functioning improvement drainage system, much of the woodland is very wet today, making for a rich biodiverse ecosystem and also likely to promote good organic survival of archaeological remains. While coppiced oak is most common, the rarer pollard and maiden forms of oak on some of the boundaries are likely to be rather older, for example on the bank of the bailey to the E of the old castle. A number of skirted old oaks indicate historic grazing pressure, and 18th-century mapping, the earliest to show any detail, shows a wood with a number of open meadow areas within. However, we found no obvious evidence of there being a deer park here. The form of a substantial curved dyke just W of the old castle, on which many oak coppice stools have grown, was more suggestive of a former sea wall than a park dyke.

Archive: NRHE (intended). Report: Dumfries and Galloway HER

Funder: Historic Environment Scotland

Coralie Mills and Peter Quelch – Dendrochronicle for CFA Archaeology Ltd

(Source: DES Vol 19)