Pricing Change
New pricing for orders of material from this site will come into place shortly. Charges for supply of digital images, digitisation on demand, prints and licensing will be altered.
Edinburgh, The University Of Edinburgh, Crichton Street, Informatics Forum
Commercial Premises, Faculty Building (21st Century), Quarry, School (19th Century), Tenement(S) (18th Century), University (21st Century), Well
Site Name Edinburgh, The University Of Edinburgh, Crichton Street, Informatics Forum
Classification Commercial Premises, Faculty Building (21st Century), Quarry, School (19th Century), Tenement(S) (18th Century), University (21st Century), Well
Canmore ID 292839
Site Number NT27SE 5975
NGR NT 25944 73102
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/292839
- Council Edinburgh, City Of
- Parish Edinburgh (Edinburgh, City Of)
- Former Region Lothian
- Former District City Of Edinburgh
- Former County Midlothian
Excavation (7 March 2016 - 24 April 2016)
NT 25946 73111 A programme of archaeological work was undertaken, 7 March – 24 April 2016, during the construction of a new Data Technology Institute building adjacent to Potterrow. Prior to work commencing, the site
was a landscaped area of grass and gravel walkways recently installed during the construction of nearby university tower block buildings. Before this the area had been a patch of disused waste ground used as a car park since the demolition of the last standing buildings in the 1970s. According to historic maps the site had been under development from at least the 18th century.
The watching brief initially discovered the tarmac and hard-standing of the recent car park just below the grass of the current park. Below this a compact layer of demolition material was uncovered which overlay the remains of numerous walls. At this point the watching brief was escalated to an excavation to record the remains prior to their removal.
Over the course of the excavation the site produced a series of stratified remains including a 19th-century school, 18th-century tenements and commercial buildings, post-medieval industry, a stone lined well, and large scale quarrying activities. Alongside this a wide range of artefacts was recovered from the site including a concentrated dump of non-local stoneware ceramics, numerous fragments of Scottish post-medieval reduced ware with a green glaze, and a substantial quantity of metal working material in the form of copper rich slag and ceramic forming material.
Once excavated and recorded, the structures of the site were removed to uncover any further remains. This was continued across most of the site until sterile natural subsoil was reached. Due to the quarrying activity natural subsoil could not be reached across the middle of the site. At this point deposits of quarry fill continued below the 5m maximum depth of the current development and as such will be partially preserved in situ.
Archive: NRHE (intended)
Funder: University of Edinburgh
Nicholas Johnstone – AOC Archaeology Group
(Source: DES, Volume 17)
