Archaeology Notes
Event ID 707098
Category Descriptive Accounts
Type Archaeology Notes
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/707098
NS79SE 7 centred 78896 93646
Fore adjacent Stirling Castle, see NS79SE 6.00
(NS 7855 9318) King's Park (NAT)
(NS 7889 9364) King's Knot (NR)
OS 6" map (1958)
The King's Park, which lies immediately SW of the Castle Rock (for which see NS79SE 6), appears to have been Crown property since at least the end of the 12th century, when William the Lion began to enlarge the area of the original park by taking in more ground to the S, the earlier and later enclosures becoming known as the Old Park and the New Park. These "parks" were primarily hunting grounds, and references to the King's deer are found as late as the 17th century.
From about the beginning of the 16th century onwards, the NE corner of the Old Park seems to have been set aside as a garden. An extensive system of alterations and reconstructions was carried out about 1627-8; it is to this period that the extant remains have their origin. Today, there may be seen a parterre, to the SE of which is an octagonal, stepped mound known as the Knot. The mound, a characteristic feature of gardens of the 16th and 17th centuries, is 9' high and 22' across the top. It stands within a double-ditched enclosure measuring 420' x 425' over all. The S angle and part of SW side have been encroached upon by the Dumbarton road. No doubt the outlines of the walks and of the Knot became indistinct after the gardens fell out of use (before the beginning of the 18th century) for a "thorough restoration and renewal" was carried out in 1867. A comparison of the site as it is today with an 18th century War Office plan in the Public Record Office, London (WO 78/1562), suggests that in the course of restoration the "mount" was considerably altered, while it also seems possible that the orientation of the entire enclosure was slightly changed.
On the SE side of the King's Knot, a ditch can be seen running from the E corner of the Park to the Dumbarton road, a distance of about 140 yds. It measures 25' - 30' in width, and the E half is still as much as 5' deep in places although the W half has been almost completely filled in. According to the 6" OS map, there was a bank on the N side of the
ditch, but this has now been obliterated. The 18th century map referred to earlier shows that the ditch run roughly parallel with the S side of the Knot, before the axis of the latter was altered, and returned sharply northwards at some point underneath the present Dumbarton road to cover part of the W side of the Knot. The sharpness of the corner is sufficient to disprove the theory that this earthwork represents the remains of a Roman fort (see NS79SE 10) and it seems likely that it is an early boundary designed to keep deer and livestock out of the Royal garden. The present boundary wall of the Park on the NE is built on the line of a similar bank and ditch.
RCAHMS 1963, visited 1959.
The King's Park and King's Knot are as described by RCAHMS.
The ditch on the SW of King's Knot is probably a boundary work as suggested.
Visited by OS(JP) 6 December 1973.
The remains of the formal garden known as The King's Knot, lying S of Stirling Castle, has a ditch 8.23m wide running obliquely acrossthe E approaches to the raised 'knot'. This ditch is alien to the rectilinear style of the garden, and it was suggested by Crawford that it might be Roman. Excavation in the playing fields to the S, across the road, proved that this ditch does continue. In this particulary wet area the ditch sides had collapsed at least twice, trapping silts containing vegetable matter, which was sampled. Nearby to the W, an extensive series of test pits failed to find the Roman road on the next accessible forward projection from the last reported location in King's Park. It may be that this deviation from an apparently suitable line, leading to two fordable Forth crossings, could have a link with the ditch.
D J Milne 1975
White (R White 1871), quoting from the Chamberlain's Accounts of Stirling, states: "In 1263 the sheriff of Stirling was employed in repairing the ancient park, and in constructing a new park there for Alexander III...Twenty years later there was an allowance for... four hundred perches (2200 yds) of palisade round the new park..."
This is the earliest record of such a fence in Scotland. Documentary evidence reveals that Stirling old park which lay to the W of the castle was built by William I. This old park fell out of use but was renovated by James IV in the late 15th and early 16th centuries. Some traces of this latter park can perhaps be detected on the ground; it was probably smaller in area than William I's park. The bounds of William I's park may have followed the line of the parish boundary marked today by a fence and ditch, since it forms a much more natural line for the park pale to the N of the present park. The bounds of the present park would then belong to James IV's renovation and it is probably traces of this pale which were once visible on the NE boundary of the King's Park, and which are still visible to the SE of the King's Knot. The boundaries of the new park of Stirling, built by Alexander III and repaired in 1288 x 1290 have been traced (T Miller 1922), although no remains of this pale survive.
M L Anderson 1967; J M Gilbert 1979.
King's Knot: Photographed by the RCAHM in 1980.
RCAHMS AP Catalogue 1980.
