Archaeology Notes

Event ID 844480

Category Descriptive Accounts

Type Archaeology Notes

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/844480

NT27SE 1.44 centred 2514 7343

Area N. Dury's Battery. This exhibited similarities to the excavation on Mill's Mount - both being outlying areas of the original castle, associated with industrial activities, and surviving as well-sealed, deeply stratified areas.

This was excavated to over 2m in depth, down to earliest levels associated with the construction of the Vaults c1500. Here a timber revetted cellar had been built against the west facing wall of the Vaults. This was demolished at some time in the 17th century and rapidly infilled with a 1m thick dump of domestic refuse. Ten stone cannonballs were found in the fill. Slight evidence for gun founding in this vicinity was represented by pieces of bronze and iron slag along with a dump of furnace bricks.

The top of the infilled cellar was dished and here in excess of 14 articulated dog skeletons were found, again 17th century in date.

Following this, the Castle Governor's carriage shed was built here in the 1680s. This was demolished to make way for the French prisoner's yard, the surface of which was exposed.

P Yeoman, 1988a

NT 251 734 A watching brief was undertaken in September 2002 during the excavation of a service trench across the cobbled area to the N of Dury's Battery, near the entrance to the vaults under the Queen Anne Building. A portion of this trench included part of the previously excavated area (DES 1998, 35). Part of a substantial wall, over 0.9m wide and surviving to a height of over 0.5m, was recorded, mostly in the S section of the trench.

Archive to be deposited in the NMRS.

Sponsor: HS

G Ewart and A Radley 2002

NT 251 734 Vaults and Dury's Battery. Further to the programme of survey and recording in the Vaults (DES 2001, 40-41), a more detailed examination was undertaken in October 2002 of the varied graffiti seen both around the Vaults and Drury's Battery. Detailed close-up photographs were taken. Descriptions were made and a typology devised.

Archive to be deposited in the NMRS.

Sponsor: HS

G Ewart 2003