Dendrochronology

Event ID 1161572

Category Scientific Dating

Type Dendrochronology

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1161572

NT 26796 73937 An historic building recording programme at Abbey Strand by Kirkdale Archaeology for the Royal Collection Trust serendipitously coincided with the SESOD project. Eight oak timbers were analysed for SESOD. This assemblage is of very mixed character with little intra-assemblage cross matching, no doubt reflecting the complex evolution of the building. Two or possibly three, of the Abbey Strand SESOD samples are from oak sled runners re-used in the building: ABS003 and ABS016 have been dendro-dated and are Norwegian in origin. Unfortunately, there is no sapwood on either sample. They were made from trees felled sometime after AD 1537. The only other dated Abbey Strand SESOD sample is timber ABS142 with a felling date in the winter of AD 1580/81. This matches best with Danish reference data, unusual given most 16th-century dendro-dated oak timber in Edinburgh comes from Norway. The five other SESOD samples from Abbey Strand did not match each other or any other oak samples from the site and could not be dated. They include younger oaks than represented in the Scandinavian material and there may be some native Scottish oak amongst them. Two other oak timbers from the Abbey Strand project have been dated by Anne Crone and proved to be Scandinavian imports of 15th- and 16th-century date (Crone 2021): all Abbey Strand dendrochronological results will be presented in the site publication as well as in the SESOD project publication. See also the SESOD overview (p6).

Archive: NRHE (intended)

Funder: Historic Environment Scotland

Coralie Mills – Dendrochronicle

(Source: DES Volume 23)