Excavation

Date 21 January 1997

Event ID 546498

Category Recording

Type Excavation

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/546498

NT 5152 8386 The excavation, by Kirkdale Archaeology, of service pipe trenches were cut through well-worked humic soil, with a distinctive brown (clay-rich) character. This deposit was clearly introduced, and may well reflect the terraces thought to have been created during the 16th-century formal privy garden phase, still in evidence within the parterre and yew-tree planting. This is confirmed by the fact that the deposit underlay the 18th-century estate/garden wall (Archerfield House). The depth of the earthwork was uncertain, but it clearly projected beyond the limits of the garden area as defined by the 18th-century wall.

Recent excavations in the N and W gardens confirmed the presence of a complex post-medieval layout beneath the landscaping of the 18th and 19th centuries. The landscaping had served to reduce the originally steeper earthworks of the earlier layout.

Sponsor: Historic Scotland

G Ewart 1997