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Mavisbank House

Gate (Period Unassigned), Gate Pier (Period Unassigned), Walled Garden (Period Unassigned)

Site Name Mavisbank House

Classification Gate (Period Unassigned), Gate Pier (Period Unassigned), Walled Garden (Period Unassigned)

Alternative Name(s) New Saughton Hall; Mavisbank House Policies

Canmore ID 212394

Site Number NT26NE 54.03

NGR NT 28935 65072

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/212394

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

  • Council Midlothian
  • Parish Lasswade
  • Former Region Lothian
  • Former District Midlothian
  • Former County Midlothian

Archaeology Notes

NT 28807 65146 (Mavisbank House) A re-assessment was undertaken of the designed landscape and analytical history of Mavisbank House. Compilation of a gazetteer of landscape features and built structures represents a comprehensive upgrading of previous assessments.

A previously unrecorded ice house was discovered below the existing game larder; well preserved and linked to the game larder. A possible 'tump' or stand of trees forming a visual terminus to the northern vista was also identified.

Assessment was undertaken of the doocot forming the 'eye-catcher' at the E end of the main vista. Low walls on either side had been reduced in height; patchings on either side of the doocot tower suggested that these walls had been shaped in order to form a silhouette on the skyline as seen from the house.

Initial assessment of the walled garden confirmed that this had originally been oval, but designed so that it appeared circular when viewed from the house. It was deduced that there had been a further vista aligned on the centre of the S frontage of the house that bisected the walled garden.

The SW annexe to the walled garden, now triangular in form, had most probably been rectangular originally, as suggested by Roy's map of c 1750. The surviving gazebo was deduced to have been on the central axis of this former arrangement, an axis that may also have been aligned on the doocot at the E end of the policies.

Archive to be deposited in the NMRS.

T Addyman 2004

Activities

Watching Brief (28 February 2014 - 15 April 2014)

Addyman Archaeology were appointed by the Mavisbank Trust to oversee all ground breaking works associated with the installation of a path network in the policies of the 18th century Mavisbank House. Primarily this involved the removal of c.0.30m of topsoil across the path network where this lay within the limits of the Scheduled Monument. In the area known as the cricket pitch around the walled garden, excavation revealed a firm deposit of predominantly red blaize. Bricks dateable to the early 20th century were recorded within the deposit. It is likely that the levelling in this area is associated with the recorded use of the cricket pitch for horses, with stables built against the external face of the nearby walled garden. North of the cricket pitch, a localised spread of industrial detritus likely relates to the mining, or industrial usage of the area. A linear bank noted, and crossed by the path at the northern end of the policies is likely to be upcast from a now much degraded drainage ditch.

Information from Oasis (addymana1-174575) 26 September 2017

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