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Dirleton, Village Green

Green (Post Medieval)

Site Name Dirleton, Village Green

Classification Green (Post Medieval)

Canmore ID 209248

Site Number NT58SW 100

NGR NT 51444 84012

NGR Description Centred on NT 51444 84012

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/209248

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Administrative Areas

  • Council East Lothian
  • Parish Dirleton
  • Former Region Lothian
  • Former District East Lothian
  • Former County East Lothian

Activities

Geophysical Survey (11 August 2012)

NT 51504 84041 (Green) and NT 51366 83992 (Paddock) In advance of a Scottish Archaeology Month event organised by the Gullane and Dirleton History Society a ground resistance survey of the village green and an adjacent paddock was undertaken, on 11 August 2012, to define earthworks on the green and to locate possible structures to the N of the Old Manse in the paddock. The earthworks on the green are thought to be the remains of a chapel associated with Dirleton Castle. The survey recorded linear low resistance traces of a rectangular structure around 22 x 10m with slightly rounded corners and a two cell rectangular structure of 14 x 11.5m to the N. These could be robbed out foundation trenches. The results in the paddock were inconclusive, probably due to tree roots drying out the subsoil although slight linear low resistance anomalies were noted.

Archive: RCAHMS and East Lothian Council SMR (intended)

Funder: East Lothian Council, Gullane and Dirleton History Society and Edinburgh Archaeological Field Society

Ian Hawkins, Edinburgh Archaeological Field Society

Donald Matthews, 2012

Field Visit (14 September 2012)

NT 5149 8403 A survey was undertaken on 14 September 2012 of earthworks on Dirleton Green. The work was carried out by East Lothian Council Archaeology Service and Gullane and Dirleton History Society as part of a training workshop during East Lothian Archaeology and Local History Fortnight. This work followed a geophysical survey of the site undertaken by EAFS (see above).

The plane table survey recorded the outline of two buildings at the E end of the green, which showed clearly as hollows, presumably where walls had been robbed. The first building was rectangular, aligned E–W and measured c22 x 11m. The second structure was less well defined, and showed as a low U-shaped mound, c13 x 11m. These results complement the geophysical survey which showed the clear outline of the two buildings.

Historical research undertaken by Gullane and Dirleton History Society suggests that these buildings could have been the site of a chapel or of a domestic or agricultural building. Nothing is shown on this site on Roy’s map of c1750, the first reasonably detailed map of this area, or on any subsequent map, suggesting that any buildings had gone out of use by that time. There are documentary references to two chapels in Dirleton, yet to be located, that existed in the medieval period but went out of use around the time of the Reformation. The plots around the green were feued in the 1630s. It is possible that the buildings were of a domestic/agricultural nature and did not fit the plan for the new plots.

Archive: RCAHMS (intended)

Stephanie Leith, East Lothian Council Archaeology Service

2012

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