Archaeology Notes

Event ID 774984

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/774984

NT27SE 1.43 centred 2521 7351

Area G. Guardhouse-Tattoo Shop, Cromwellian Steps. The Civil War period staircase was completely opened up, leading down through a very fine stone portal into the inner barrier ditch base. This structure cut through a very considerable depth of contemporary levelling material, dumped between the north and south walls. The later guardhouse walls were built up from these. The north wall was excavated to its base, a total depth of 7m. The great 17th century dump and retaining walls had been made to provide more useful space and a building plaform on the approach side of the Castle.

Area J and K. Detention Cells and CO's Stables Yard. The detention block was added to the west side of the guardhouse in 1866/7. As in area G, the north and south walls were built up on 17th century walls. An unexpected discovery during trial excavations here was a deeply buried broad, coursed-rubble wall, aligned NNE SSW which had been cut by the construction of the south wall, which divided this area from the approach road.

Current enlarged excavations have exposed this wall which may have formed part of an angled artillery spur, known to have been built here c1500.

Elsewhere only 17th century infilling was encountered, sealed under the modern stables yard by a well laid layer of cobbles associated with the 18th-19th century coal yard.

Sponsor : SDD (HBM)

P Yeoman, 1988a

Area G: Guardhouses-Tattoo Store, New Shop

Excavations in 1988 revealed a 7m depth of deposits in this area. These deposits were completely removed to create a new gift shop of four floors. The east end of this area produced evidence of a much larger angle-pointed bastion, the north part of which projected northwards into what is now Princes Street Gardens. This can be dated to the late 15th to early 16th centuries. Evidence was found to suggest that each successive construction phase occurred in direct repsponse to damage caused during the sieges of 1544, 1573, 1640 and 1650. This bastion contained an inner gateway which allowed the main access road to pass through it, before making a dog-legged turn south to follow the presnt road-line in the east of the Portcullis Gate(NT27SE 1.4).

Part of the gateway survived in the outer face of the east end wall of the bastion. This can be seen today as a 4m high, infilled, flat, pointed archway. During the 17th century the road line was realigned at a higher level to the south of this area, on the route still in use. This necessitated the infilling of the bastion, which was reduced in size to form the slim-line flanker which survives in plan to this day.

An interim phase of parapet, with slop-drain, steps and a pair of blocked gun-loops, was found on the interior face of the E end wall. These features, dating to the first half of the 17th century, were associated with the blocking of the Coal Yard Gateway, and the first major phase of infill dumping. Evidence was produced to indicate that the 'Cromwellian Steps' in the southeast corner of this flanker, were 16th century in origin. The two phases of massive spoil dumps, which raised the levels inside the flanker to that of the new road, are likely to have originated from remodelling of the outer east defences and the new dry ditch.

Areas J and K CO's Stables yard, New Shop

Further evidence was found of the stone structure reported here in 1988. It is now interpreted as a 16th century inner guardhouse, algned E-W, through which the late medieval road-line turned to the south before proceeding W to the base of the Constable's Tower. A latrine for the later guardhouse was built over this in the mid 19th century.

Area M Coal yard, Tunnel Entrance

Archaeological excavations here produced the first evidence of the medieval outer defences. A pair of massive ditches, each approximately 15m wide by at least 8m deep, curved around from north to the east in front of the late medieval gateway (Area G). 14th century pottery was found in primary fills of the inner ditch. These ditches may have enlarged upon earlier defences. Banks are presumed to have been formed from the upcast. The ditches were partially infilled by the construction of the Spur in the mid-16th century. The northern portions finally being infilled when access was realigned in the first half of the 17th century.

The top backfill was cut into by at least 16 graves laid out in rows with no intercutting. These burials were of young male adults, some of whom were of above average stature. A number of these exhibited signs of healed traumatic injuries. The cemetery is dated to c1650 by which time Cromwell's troops were garrisoned in the Castle.

Sponsor : SDD (HBM)

P Yeoman 1989

NT 252 735 A watching brief was undertaken in September 2005 during the excavation of six substantial test pits in the area known as the coal yard (NT27SE 1.43), which presently forms the open space at the E end of the castle tunnel. There were no finds or features of archaeological significance.

Archive to be deposited in NMRS.

Sponsor: HS

A Radley, D Stewart 2005

NT 252 735 Six boreholes were drilled in the area known as the Coal Yard in October 2006 in advance of the installation of six pilings to support a new ticket office at the castle (DES 2005, 64). The boreholes confirmed the presence of two ditches, but demonstrated that these were deeper than previously thought, with the inner ditch being approximately 9.6m deep and the outer ditch being over 10.7m deep. The infilling of the lower fills of both ditches appears to have been through alluviation, with the upper fills being the result of the dumping of clay and rubble

Archive to be deposited in NMRS, report to be lodged with Historic Scotland and NMRS.

Sponsor: Historic Scotland

Dr Stephen Lancaster, 2006.