Standing Building Recording

Date March 2012 - October 2012

Event ID 993201

Category Recording

Type Standing Building Recording

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/993201

NS 98515 85951 A building survey was undertaken March – October 2012 in advance of re-harling of the N, W and E elevations of the N range, and of the N wall and E gable of the lower extension to E. A full drawn stone-by-stone survey was undertaken of the three elevations that were stripped of their harling. The survey included small-scale roof investigations; however, no evidence of earlier roofing materials or eaves and verge details survived.

Construction breaks and the remains of quoins indicated the survival of an earlier structure, incorporated and enlarged by Sir George Bruce’s remodelling of the N range in 1611. The earlier building generally corresponds with the footprint of the existing structure, but was smaller in its S extent. MacGibbon and Ross recognised similar evidence in the 1880s, which they interpreted as an earlier stable.

The survey also identified the remains of a cross wall and sill stones that suggest the previous existence of a stair tower at the rear. This would have provided access to the hall at attic level in a more elegant manner than the extant internal turnpike stair within the W room on first floor. A rear stair tower would also mirror the arrangement of the W range, remodelled by Bruce only 15 years earlier.

Evidence for reset quoins, inserted flues and apparently blocked fireplaces combine to suggest a now lost W extension; this apparently was of similar height to the extant N range. Historic photographs underpin the evidence for a pre-existing W extension as the W gable of the extant N range is shown without crow-steps. This implies that the roof had at some point continued further W, with the present crow-steps being rebuilt with reused stones, probably after the NTS acquired the building in 1932. Some of the stones used to block flues and the fireplace serving the W extension retained internal plaster and paint on their underside. These represent a possible resource for paint analysis, as they were probably reused from a demolished building on site, perhaps even from the demolished W extension. Further details such as the removal and rebuilding of the E dormer at rear, the reduction in height of the loading door to the E extension loft and the complete reroofing in pantiles all combine to reveal that Culross Palace’s N range has a far richer building history than the overall presentation of a homogenous structure might suggest at first glance.

Archive: NTS and RCAHMS

Funder: The National Trust for Scotland

Tanja Romankiewicz, Addyman Archaeology

Kenneth Macfadyen,

2012

OASIS ID - addymana1-136588