Archaeology Notes

Event ID 768196

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/768196

NJ90NW 329 939 062

Excavation took place at the site of Aberdeen Academy in advance of development. A basement or cellar of a medieval building was excavated, measuring 8.2m long by c 5m wide. It was originally constructed in the 13th or early 14th century, of large granite boulders bonded with pink clay and small stones. It was probably initially accessed by a set of wooden steps. The remains of these steps were excavated, and sockets in an adjacent wall indicated where horizontal beams were inserted making the treads for these stairs. In the late 14th or early 15th century a clay ramp replaced the steps, and a clay floor was laid within the building. Very little demolition material was present and so it is not known what form the rest of the building took.

It is possible that this building was associated with the Blackfriars (Dominicans) who owned land on the N and S sides of Schoolhill at this time, or it may have been the remains of a medieval town house. No trace of this building, however, appears on the earliest map of Aberdeen drawn by Parson James Gordon in 1661. The land, called Caberstone Croft, passed from the Dominicans after the Reformation (c 1560) to Marischal College and was used exclusively for gardening and agriculture until the late 18th century when the college sold the land for housing.

Other features excavated on this site include two post-medieval ditches and an 18th-century boundary wall. Most of the site was covered with c 1.5m of garden soil, containing solely 18th to 19th-century material.

Sponsor: Jarlaw the Academy Ltd

A Cameron 1996.

There is no change to the existing record

Information from RCAHMS (JRS), 29 May 1997.