Excavation

Date 29 June 2008 - 1 August 2008

Event ID 575416

Category Recording

Type Excavation

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/575416

NJ 7233 1708 Work carried out 29 June–1 August confirmed that the moat, investigated in the 2007 season, reaches a terminus in the area S of the post-Reformation mansion which now dominates the site. The organic deposits in the upper fill of the moat are well preserved and extend northwards as far as the terrace wall. Offcuts of hewn oak and a fragment of lathe-turned wood were recovered from the moat fill.

The terrace wall runs E/W parallel to the moat and is aligned with the more southerly of the two robbed-out walls excavated (in 2005/06) to the W of the drive which bisects the site. E of the drive the wall extends E beyond the terminus of the southern portion of the moat, turning at a right-angle to continue northwards and run into a widened N/S trending wall, as described in previous DES entries. The wall encroaches onto a section of moat and we uncovered what appears to be its southernmost terminus in 2008, but did not excavate its fill.

The more northerly of the two robbed-out walls encountered W of the drive in 2005/06 continues E of the drive. Measuring nearly 3m in width, it probably formed part of one of the public buildings of the medieval bishop’s palace. It was robbed in the 19th-century excavation of the site; a timber plank remains in situ from this earlier excavation, and was used to site a drain pipe which runs along its length underneath a layer of hardcore.

We further explored the cobbled area between the two termini of the moat in the SE sector of the excavation area. On the E of the cobbled area is a ditch with a V-shaped profile. It runs S towards the Marshes Burn. The ditch differs in character from the moat, which is flat-bottomed where it was dug into the natural clay. A small gully fed into the ditch on its W side. Two massive boulders lay in the soil covering the northern part of the ditch. On their removal two in situ oak sill beams in a setting of stones were revealed. These beams are at the N end of the ditch, but further excavation is required to ascertain their relationship. Each has two mortises. They were converging to the W.

We wish to thank Mrs C Whittall, Mr J Whittall, Mrs C Fyffe, Mr R Fyffe and Mr D Fyffe for their support and for allowing access to the site.

Archive: Aberdeenshire SMR (intended) and RCAHMS (intended)

Funder: Aberdeenshire Council, Council for British Archaeology Challenge Funding and Past Horizons

PZ Dransart and J Trigg (Scottish Episcopal Palaces Project), 2008