Archaeology Notes

Event ID 738899

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/738899

NX97NE 154 97446 76025

A detailed analytical assessment of the theatre was undertaken in July 2004. This defined the surviving extent of the theatre of 1790 by Thomas Boyd (and of Robert Burns fame). The E and S walls of the structure are essentially complete, although in the latter area the fenestration has seen a number of phases of modification. Large sections of the N wall also remain, including evidence for early windows and entrances at cellar level. Isolated elements of the W (entrance) elevation may also remain, but these are largely overlain by later linings and the existing frontage, constructed by C J Phipps in c 1876.

The roof structure was discovered to be largely the original, and includes evidence for fittings and arrangements relating to the stage area below. This roof structure had been repaired in the 1876 works, whereby new tie beams were suspended from wooden hangers that themselves constituted reused lining boards, evidently from the interior of the original theatre. Many of these boards retain wallpaper decoration in a sequence of layers.

A series of later additions to the N wall of the theatre were recorded at cellar level.

Archive to be deposited in the NMRS.

Sponsor: Theatres Trust

T Addyman 2004