Archaeological Evaluation

Date May 2004

Event ID 551314

Category Recording

Type Archaeological Evaluation

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/551314

NS 428 623 SUAT were commissioned by the owner of Johnstone Castle to conduct an evaluation in May 2004 of the castle grounds in the area of a proposed new barmkin wall and service trench. At the same time, the castle was to be the subject of a standing building survey (photographic, electronic and scale drawings) as a precursor to renovation of the interior. The evaluation found the grounds to be highly disturbed by modern or Victorian foundations and concrete platforms that are presumed to relate to the 19th-century additions to the castle, a large mansion house demolished in the 1950s. Services were also present. No features of archaeological significance were exposed.

The standing building record showed that several phases of building, demolition and rebuilding had occured in the lifetime of the castle. In particular, the original rectangular tower, having been extended through the addition of a crow-step gabled house, now exhibited several areas where vestiges of the mansion walls were apparent as raggle or heavily truncated connecting walls protruding from the faces of the remaining late/post-medieval core. Numerous doors and windows had been blocked up or otherwise modified, often presumably to accommodate the presence of the mansion, or more recently to remove entrances rendered redundant by the removal of the mansion. Several arrow slits and gun ports were still extant, along with decorative lancet windows and dummy machicolation moulding, however, and the post-medieval core was in general fairly intact.

Report lodged with NMRS.

Sponsor: Private landowner.