Archaeology Notes

Event ID 665095

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/665095

NH95NE 10.00 97959 57775

NH95NE 10.01 Centred NH 9815 5790 Walled garden

NH95NE 10.02 NH 9788 5780 Stables

NH95NE 10.03 NH 97842 57262 Station Lodge and Gatepiers

NH95NE 10.04 NH 97514 57581 West Lodge

NH95NE 10.05 NH 97334 57414 Burial-ground

NH95NE 10.06 NH 9820 5737 South Lodge

NH95NE 10.07 NH 97708 58053 Brodie Mains

NH95NE 10.08 NH 9775 5799 Sawmill

NH95NE 10.09 c.NH 97584 58318 Poultry house

NH95NE 10.10 NH 98101 57673 Car park

NH95NE 10.11 NH 98086 57815 and NH 98072 57919 Sundials

For Rodney's Stone (Pictish cross-slab at NH 9842 5766, removed from NH 990 584), see NH95NE 3.

(NH 9795 5778) Brodie Castle (NAT)

OS 6" map (1959)

Brodie Castle: A large mansion originally on the Z-plan, was burnt by Lord Lewis Gordon in 1645 and restored thereafter, some of the older parts being preserved. The property has belonged to the family of Brodie of Brodie since 14th C. The dovecot was destroyed during the 1645 raid.

D MacGibbon and T Ross 1891; R Douglas 1931

The oldest part of Brodie Castle is the tower dating from about 1430. Another part dates from about 1530 and the newest parts were added between 1820 and 1830.

Dyke W R I 1966

Brodie Castle, a large occupied mansion, still incorporates much of the fabric of the earlier works. The Z-plan building forms the S half of the present house. The S tower is thought by the present owner to be the original keep of 1430. In the re-entrant angle of the N tower, now inside the house, is a doorway with a lintel dated 1602.

On a 1770 map of the Brodie estates by George Brown, a field centred at NH 9776 5771, is named 'Dovecot Park', but the name is no longer in use and the site of the dovecot is not known.

Visited by OS (RL) 20 January 1971

NH 979 578. Excavations were undertaken in February 1995 in advance of renovation work on the mid 18th century stable building in the grounds of Brodie Castle, a Z-plan tower-house dating to the middle of the 16th century.

No dating material attributable to the primary use of the buildings was recovered in the seven trenches opened. In c1846, the eastern half of the stables housed a smithy and store, whilst the western half remained as stables. The date of the renovations is not clear, however date stones on the relevant areas of the tower-house, a dated architect's watercolour, and a date-stone recovered from the blocking material of the SW central arch during the 1995 excavatins, all date to 1846. The architect's illustration indicates that it was the owner's intention to oversee the construction of an elaborate tower ('The Pigeon Tower') on the SE angle of the castle. This tower was never built.

By the latter half of the 19th century the stable block was in a poor state of repair, having suffered serious structural deterioration a a result of the abortive tower building attempt. Thereafter, the building saw use only as a storage area.

Sponsor: National Trust for Scotland.

G Ewart, J Triscott and A Dunn 1995.

Visible on vertical air photograph (OS 65/035/061, flown 1965).

Information from RCAHMS (DE) July 1996

NH 979 578. Internal and external elevations of the courtyard to the N of the Z-plan tower house were made by Kirkdale Archaeology during March 1996, prior to the harling of the stonework. All features were recorded by photogrammetry and scale drawing. It was apparent that the ideals of the original and eventual architects differed, in that the former, William Burn, intended for the stonework to be covered by harling, whereas the latter, James Wylson, used well-dressed stone, indicating his desire that the stonework remain exposed. A letter from James Wylson to William, 22nd Brodie of Brodie, dated 9th February 1846, further indicates his preference for well-dressed, exposed stonework.

Sponsor: National Trust for Scotland

G Ewart and A Dunn 1996

NH 979 578. A topographic survey was carried out within the grounds of Brodie Castle to identify the location and survival of features associated with the development of the designed landscape. As well as buildings, boundaries, paths and drives, water courses and ponds, and other such features, the survey also recorded the locations of all large trees and tree stumps within the area. This work comprised an element of a historic landscape survey of Brodie Castle policies and was carried out in association with Landscape Conservation Studio Ltd and Scottish Woodlands Ltd.

Sponsor: National Trust for Scotland

J Lewis and J Terry 1998

NH 9799 5778. An archaeological recording exercise was undertaken during the removal of harling from all walls of the 16th-century NE tower, and from the N walls of the 17th-century W wing and the 18th-century stair wing. The NE tower forms a component of the current Z-plan castle. Earlier sources suggest that the NE tower may initially have stood in isolation, a hypothesis which was tested by the recording exercise.

A number of episodes of building and repair were recorded, indicating that the NE tower may originally have formed a part of an L-plan castle, the form of which has subsequently undergone various alterations, most notably the reworking of the wall-heads along both the tower and the W wing, probably during the earlier 18th century. As the stonework of the E wall of the NE tower continues along the line of the E wall of the adjoining hall without any clear change in build, it is likely that the two structures are contemporary. The implication is that an L-plan castle was modified in the mid-16th century by the addition of the SW tower to form the Z-plan central to the castle complex of today.

Changes in fenestration and access reflected the addition of adjoining wings in the earlier 19th century, as well as changes in the internal arrangements of the buildings.

Sponsor: National Trust for Scotland

A Dunn 1998

NH 979 577 A 1 x 10m evaluation trench was excavated in May 2000. This ran perpendicularly out from the foot of the W wall of the SW tower (NMRS NH95NE 10).

A single overall level of dark brown humic silt, probably partly garden soil, was uniformly some 0.5m thick for the length of the trench, overlying natural. This level was excavated to natural at the tower wall foot for 1.5m. It was found to consist of four sub-levels each containing identical artefactual material. This comprises a considerable quantity of window glass, including two near-complete rectangular quarries, fragments of free-blown 'black' glass bottles, probably 18th century, clear glass wine glasses, one possibly with part of an air-twist stem. A large amount of tin-glazed pottery represents four or five vessels including a strainer, a small hand-painted blue and white cup, and parts of a polychrome hand-painted vessel. These tin-glazed wares probably date from c 1700-40.

Subsequent activity included a stone-lined drain, perhaps of the 18th century; and a rumbling drain containing graded gravel and cobbles with larger cobbles at the base, some 1.2m below the surface, probably 19th or earlier 20th century.

The foundation of the tower was exposed and revealed to simply consist of a single course of substantial stones up to 0.5m in diameter or more, set directly onto the natural and protruding up to about 15cm proud of the wall face above. Remains of clay bonding were seen.

Sponsor: National Trust for Scotland

T Addyman 2000