Watching Brief

Date 4 December 2007 - 12 December 2007

Event ID 577208

Category Recording

Type Watching Brief

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/577208

NT 2695 7409 to NT 2713 7401 A watching brief was maintained, 4–12 December 2007, during the excavation of a new service trench. The trench ran from a point opposite the entrance to Croft An Righ House to a point just W of the Education Centre. The cut consisted of three sections.

The first ran S along Croft-An-Righ towards the entrance to Holyrood Park, a distance of c35m. The next section ran diagonally across the present tarmac roadway to meet up with N side of the path to the Education Centre, a distance of c20m. The third trench was cut along the N side of the existing path leading to the Education Centre, c110 m. The N/S section of the walling along the E side of Croft An Righ was also examined.

The area generally affected by the service trench was formed as a result of landscaping over various late medieval structures and road alignments from the early 18th century to the later 19th century. The present N area of the park largely represents the infill of a shallow slope which runs down from a point a short distance N of the tennis courts. At its deepest the infill is up to 1m deep (on the evidence of the threshold of a surviving door in the residual N wall of the park).

Based on the sequence of building, excavated evidence from the first section of the trench and historic map evidence three episodes of activity were identified.

1) Mid 17th to mid 18th century – Masonry may represent parts of the 17th- and 18th-century layout of walls at the S end of Croft-An-Righ. There is evidence to indicate the gateway was still in place in 1742.

2) Mid 18th to mid 19th century – The gateway was rebuilt a short distance to the N, with the construction of a stone buttress/gate pier with an associated cross wall. A slot received the E gate post. The earlier cross wall/gateway complex was dismantled. The main section of walling defining the E side of Croft-An-Righ was built against the new buttress.

3) Mid 19th century to present – Removal of the last gateway, levelling of the cross wall and establishment of

present setts/roadway.

The second section of trench exposed modern road construction, and in the third section, the sequence of

deposits reflected periodic landscaping since the late 19th century, when the area was raised and levelled by up to 0.5m to create the present park and plantation. A rubble spread may be levelling or demolition debris from reduced residual walls associated with the late medieval abbey/palace plan.

Sponsor: Historic Scotland

G Ewart 2007

Kirkdale Archaeology