Watching Brief

Date 6 November 2007 - 7 November 2007

Event ID 578751

Category Recording

Type Watching Brief

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/578751

NT 8570 5440 The history of the site was traced from the early medieval period and there were at least three significant building complexes, the Castle of East Nisbet (15th- to 17thcentury), a 17th- to 18th-century country house, and Allanbank House (1848–1968) built by David Bryce. A watching brief was maintained on 6–7 November 2007 as a total of three service trenches and three trial trenches were excavated over the proposed footprint of a new development.

The evaluation trenches exposed parts of the S and E limits of the Bryce house, demolished in 1968. A previous owner commented that much of the building stone had been salvaged and the remaining demolition debris

landscaped flat. The remains of the house were relatively well defined by truncated wall lines with areas between these apparently external walls infilled with light rubble and general debris. The excavation revealed the presence of cellarage. The irregular alignment of the outer S walls is reflected by a probable window and doorway, the latter also showing the presence of an external series of at least two steps, the N one of which has been robbed out.

Nothing of any earlier occupation was observed, which may be due to the apparently extensive landscaping of the natural ground surface when the Bryce house was constructed. The site appears to have been cleared down to firm clays, which lie at a general depth of 0.5m below topsoil. The contents of the service trenches also suggest that the site had been cleared towards the S limits of the available building platform.

The drain in Trench 6 may have some association with a pronounced rounded depression lying NW of the Bryce house, a possible pond or garden feature, drained or fed by the drain. The feature appears to have been an open, deep channel and may have been a feature of the 19th-century garden layout to the NW of the Bryce house, as opposed to a simple field drain.

Archive: RCAHMS (intended)

Funder: Mr J Church

Gordon Ewart (Kirkdale Archaeology), 2008

OASIS Id: kirkdale1-60213