Restalrig Kirkyard Ground Penetrating Radar Survey

Date 26 October 2022

Event ID 1155546

Category Recording

Type Ground Penetrating Radar

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1155546

Restalrig Kirkyard Geophysics Project

Historic Environment Scotland (HES), Archaeological Survey Team, undertook Ground Penetrating Radar survey at Restalrig Kirkyard, City of Edinburgh, Scotland, to identify the location of buried services within Restalrig Kirkyard. The survey was conducted on 26 October 2022. In total 0.04 ha were surveyed with a MALÅ GX Ground Penetrating Radar device.

The survey results are summarised below, drawing out the main points from a comprehensive report outlining methodology and detailed results [1]. The archive also includes the unprocessed survey data, processed survey data [2].

The geophysical survey has produced poor quality ground penetrating radar results especially in the area believed to contain the drain, and so has only been partially successful in achieved the aims. The poor results are linked to the level of disturbance in the kirkyard. Despite this there is a high level of confidence that the chosen methodology and survey strategy was appropriate to assess the archaeological potential of the survey area and a different survey method would not have produced better quality results.

The survey has identified a feature running east to west which may represent the drain as it links the location of the drain cover with the Kirk. The bioturbation in the area makes it difficult to confirm this and impossible to estimate the depth of this feature. The survey has also detected the course of the old pathway running to the south of the Kirk and identified several targets which may mark the location of unmarked burials.

Visited by HES Archaeological Survey (N. Hannon, H. Blake, M. Young, I. Shaw) 26 October 2022

[1] http://canmore.org.uk/collection/???????

[2] http://canmore.org.uk/collection/???????