Excavation

Date 26 August 2008

Event ID 575856

Category Recording

Type Excavation

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/575856

NJ 8685 3475 The NTS is restoring the terrace gardens to the rear of Haddo House to recreate their appearance as shown on an estate map dated 1879. The restoration will not only remove the modern beds but will also remove any remaining traces of petal-shaped ‘daisy’ beds that appear to have been on either side of the house c1920. The outline of these beds had been recorded on photographs taken from the roof of Haddo House during dry weather and they remained as slight hollows in the grass surface. The hollows were planned on both the SW (hall) side of the main building and at the NE (chapel) side.

On the SW side these hollows were relatively clear with four main ‘petals’ at the corners and possible intermediate ‘petals’ midway along each side. The diameter of the whole ‘daisy’ feature was between 13–14m. Two small trenches were excavated on the SW side to provide a section across the top of one of the corner ‘petal’ beds. At this point it appears to have been c1.25m wide. The trenches also showed that the bed had been cut through a path-like surface of fine pink granite dust, which can with some confidence be

interpreted as one of the mid-19th-century paths. This work was undertaken on 26 August 2008.

Archive: RCAHMS and NTS

Funder: The National Trust for Scotland

HK Murray (Murray Archaeological Services Ltd), 2008