Watching Brief

Date July 2012 - October 2012

Event ID 994173

Category Recording

Type Watching Brief

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/994173

NO 1142 2437 (centred on) Balhousie Castle was built as an L-plan tower house in 1631 for the Hay family and it was extensively enlarged in the baronial style in c1863. For many years it has been the Headquarters and Regimental Museum of the 42nd (Royal Highland) Regiment, The Black Watch, latterly The Black Watch Battalion, The Royal Regiment of Scotland.

A photographic survey was carried out on 7 March 2012 in advance of the demolition of an annexee. This showed many design details and how the annexee was made to harmonise in style with the castle. Original fabric is preserved in various parts of the castle, including examples of hand-made window glass.

The watching brief on groundworks for the new annexee and on the building work, which impinged upon the historic fabric of the tower house, was undertaken on various dates during July – October 2012. The watching brief recorded modern or 19th-century garden features in the form of linear and circular cuts and field drains, cut into the natural clay. Parts of the tower house foundations at the SW and NW corners were recorded. Excavation outside and inside the boiler room revealed 19th-century stepped foundations and makeup and rubble below the concrete floor surface. Demolitions in the tower house revealed a sealed doorway and some reused architectural stones within the N wall.

Archive: RCAHMS (intended)

Funder: The Black Watch Museum

David Bowler and Ray Cachart, Alder Archaeology Ltd, 2013

(Source: DES)