Edinburgh, 84, 86, 88 Candlemaker Row, Greyfriars Kirk House

NT 255 734 An evaluation of a proposed development site was carried out 16–17 June 2010. Rubble deposits sealed the cellar of a tenement that had been largely demolished in the mid-20th century. Two medieval features, a large pit and a possible ditch, were recorded in trial trenches. Both features lay beneath the footprint of recently demolished warehouses dating from the 18th–19th century and contained White Gritty Ware pottery dating to the 12th to 15th centuries AD and charred cereal grains including oat, hulled barley and club/bread wheat. Medieval pottery sherds from the 13th–15th century were recovered from a deep deposit in an engineering test pit towards the NW corner of the site.

Archive: RCAHMS

Funder: Greyfriars Tolbooth and Highland Kirk

James McMeekin – Headland Archaeology Ltd

An evaluation at the site of Greyfriars Kirkhouse, Candlemaker Row, Edinburgh in order to satisfy a planning condition set by the City of Edinburgh Council. The work was commissioned by Greyfriars Tolbooth and Highland Kirk and followed previous phases of trial trenching and historic building recording. Three trial trenches were excavated revealing a cellar, possibly associated with the 20th century tenements on the site and two large negative features, possibly large pits or ditches of medieval date lay beneath the recently demolished warehouses dating from the 18th–19th centuries. The two large negative features contained pottery dating to the 12th – 15th centuries ad and may relate to the original expansion of the medieval burgh and/or the foundation of Greyfriars monastery. Further medieval finds dating to the 13th–15th centuries ad were recovered from a deposit within an engineering test pit located towards the north-west corner of the site, though the presence of modern material may indicate that the medieval finds in this deposit were redeposited in the 19th century or later. Further excavation is required to further characterise the archaeological features identified during the evaluation.

Headland Archaeology (J. McMeekin) OASIS ID: HEADLAND1-78758

NT 25573 73381 A programme of archaeological works was undertaken within the footprint of a new pavilion building, with an area of 36m2 situated at 84–88 Candlemaker Row, which faced onto Candlemaker Row in Edinburgh’s Old Town. The works comprised targeted excavation, later expanded to include a watching brief and historic building recording of the extant wall of the Cowgatehead tenement to the NW of the site. The works took place intermittently between October 2021 and January 2022.

At the time of the current excavation, the site was bounded to the N by the extant Cowgatehead tenement, which is of late 19th- century date and Listed (LB28598), and to the S by the Kirkhouse building, which forms part of the Grassmarket Community Project (GCP) complex. The evidence discovered during the excavation at the Grassmarket Community Project consisted of two cellars of early 19th-century date, which would once have formed part of 92 Candlemaker Row.

The two enclosed cellars were both located adjacent to the Cowgatehead tenement wall in the NW of the site. Cellar I, to the SW, measured c7 x 4m and Cellar II to the NE measured c4 x 4m; neither was fully exposed within the excavation area. The northwestern side of both cellars was formed by the lower courses of the extant Cowgatehead wall. A modern drain cut across the middle of the site, truncating some of the structure and deposits relating to the cellars.

Cellar I, which was more fully excavated, comprised two walls, a slabbed stone floor, two steps, and an internal cross wall separating it from Cellar II. The southwestern wall was on the same alignment as a gable wall demolished in 2011; it is likely that it represents the lowest courses of this wall. All the walls were made up of roughly faced sandstone mortared with a coarse finish.

The stone floor was only partially seen but consisted of stone slabs measuring c0.8m2.

Remnants of two probable steps were found on the southeastern wall at the junction with the cross wall, and on the northwestern wall, potentially leading into what is now a blocked-up entrance situated in the Cowgatehead tenement wall.

A short section of culvert was also located in the western corner of Cellar I, but ‘floating’ within the backfill of the cellar. Where the backfill of the cellar survived undisturbed by the drain, a thin ashy clay sealed a demolition debris infill of the cellars. This debris contained modern pottery and several glass bottles of late 19th-/20th-century date.

Cellar II was seen to be entirely full of rubble and demolition material during excavation; as the construction formation level didn’t extend to the base of the cellar, the rubble was largely left in situ and less is known about its flooring and internal features.

Historic building recording of the Cowgatehead wall at the NW of the site was also undertaken as part of the same project. This identified alterations to the original alignments in the form of a projecting stepped corner or dogleg, and a projecting stepped buttress line. A number of features, including the base of a return wall, support arch, fireplace, and door at the level of the excavated cellars were also recorded across the elevation.

The combination of the discovery of the cellars along with examination of the extant wallface allows us to understand the redevelopment of this part of the Cowgatehead area in the late 18th/ early 19th century. Town plans indicate the construction of a new line of tenements fronting the road at the junction of the Cowgate and Candlemaker Row around this date, and the two cellars appear to relate to this construction. The Kirkhouse of the Grassmarket Community Project, located immediately SE of the excavation area is thought to be the final incarnation of one of these buildings, initially built in 1800. The presence of undisturbed natural

deposits, identified between the excavation area and the Kirkhouse, likely represents a pend (at 90 Candlemaker Row) providing access to the older buildings situated behind the new row frontage; the pend is certainly mapped on the 1852 Edition. It is likely that in the 18th and early 19th centuries the buildings of this new development had a mixture of trade and residential tenants.

Another major redevelopment of the area occurred between 1850 and 1877, during the building of Calvert’s Cowgatehead tenements, which drastically changed the street layout in the area to the NW of the site. It is probable that it was during this time that the now blocked up entrance and steps leading from

15 Cowgatehead were installed. From 1877 to 1894 a brass foundry, which was excavated and recorded during the previous excavation to the SW, was owned and operated by the Ramage family. In the 1880s Ramage was recorded as having an address at both 90 Candlemaker Row and at 15 Cowgatehead and this may be the reason for the adjoining cellars. It is unclear if this space was for manufacturing, storage or retailing at that time. A number of other businesses would have occupied the space after this period, and the building is recorded as a shop with lodging houses above it on insurance plans from 1906.

The building itself appears to have remained structurally unchanged after this time. A single step was noted on the southeastern edge of the excavation, situated at a gap between walls and adjacent to the internal division. This mirrors a step identified in the trial trenching on the opposite side of the same internal division. It is therefore probable that the cellars situated at 92 Candlemaker Row also had access from the pend at some point. This may have been a later addition, post-dating Ramage’s departure in 1894, to provide access to the cellars after the entrance from 15 Cowgatehead had been blocked up.

Archive: NRHE

Funder: Grassmarket Community Project

Kimberley Gaunt – Headland Archaeology Ltd

(Source: DES Volume 23)