Archaeology Notes

Event ID 826798

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/826798

NT27NW 3.00 22670 77187

NT 227 771 (centre) Following on from a desk-based assessment and field inspection, the Environmental Impact Assessment for cultural heritage within the Central Development Area, Granton, recommended a programme of archaeological works in advance of development. The former designed landscape and gardens associated with the 17th-century A-Listed building, Caroline Park House (NT27NW 3), lies partially within the Central Development Area.

The first phase of work comprised an archaeological evaluation along the route of the transport spine for the development and parts of the Upper Strand of Caroline Park.

The evaluation demonstrated that preservation of archaeological features is variable across the development area. Since the 1830s increasing industrialisation of Caroline Park has taken place. Much of the development area comprises made ground associated with industrial activity, which has removed all trace of either garden, designed landscape or earlier features. However, there are pockets of survival within the development area where features associated with the former designed landscape are preserved. A programme of excavation was undertaken to examine these areas further.

Excavation at three areas of archaeological sensitivity uncovered features which corresponded with features recorded on maps of the estate, thus clarifying the layout of the designed landscape and providing details on construction methods and stratigraphic relationships.

At the eastern end of the avenue approaching Caroline Park House from the E, a small stub of upstanding wall survived, while the evaluation produced a curved length of wall. The excavations revealed a semi-circular revetment wall approximately 19m in external diameter. Two returns were present on the N and S sides of the semi-circle, the S measuring 2m long and the N measuring 4.5m long. Each had been truncated by past ground removal works to allow construction of the railway line and an industrial premises. The wall had a slight batter to it and was leaning towards the interior of the semi-circle, and only the external wall face was faced. Remnants of a white mortar/plaster finish on the exterior wall face was not present on the inner side. A metric survey was undertaken of the elevation of this wall. It seems likely that the semi-circular wall functioned as a ha-ha, with the internal deposits considerably higher than the external ground surface. The eastern avenue may have functioned as a grassy vista culminating in a ha-ha to provide unencumbered views out to the Firth of Forth and North Berwick Law. The structure is shown as two conjoined semi-circles on a map of 1768, its earliest known depiction.

Two gravel-surfaced roads were discovered, the first measuring 22 x 4m, comprising the remains of the main carriageway approaching the house from the S, as illustrated on 18th-century historical maps of the estate. The second comprised a road measuring 15.0 x 2.8m running through the estate, lying immediately to the S of the former formal walled gardens adjacent to the house. Its position suggests that it may be the W end of the eastern avenue or it may be a road subsidiary and to the S of this avenue, as indicated on Edgar's map of 1740. A path or track is indicated in this position on the 1855 OS map.

Data Structure Reports deposited in the NMRS.

Sponsor: Waterfront Edinburgh Ltd.

M Johnson (CFA) 2002.