Callendar Park

NS97NW 47 9040 7950

For location plan see NS97NW 46.03 - MS/667/4

A search for the Military Way located an area of cobbling adjacent to an area of stone paving which evidently represented the floor of a building and included a hearth with kerb stones. The paved area was bordered N and S by shallow gullies, 7.8m apart. These together with four post-holes within the paved area suggest an appropriate EW alignment for the building.

The westernmost post-hole was excavated and found to be 70cm deep below 'natural' with a post pipe 25cm across, surrounded by packing stones.

An early 19th century estate road lay 40cm above the levels associated with the building. No finds were associated with the building, but a piece of Samain, five pieces of green-glazed ware and a musket shot (possible) were found in the overburden.

Sponsor: Falkirk Museum, HBM.

G B Bailey 1989.

Further work in 1990 uncovered approximately half of a timber hall with a central line of post-holes and an apsidal east end. The building measured 7m internally and is estimated to have been 24 to 25m long.

The central post-holes were cut 80cm into the natural. The posts themselves were 25 to 30cm in width and had been packed around with stones. The posts were 4.4m apart, except the central two which were only 3.6m apart. These lay astride the stone hearth reported in 1989. Beside the hearth lay an ash-pit. The central axis of the hall was paved with rough stone slabs.

The absence of finds suggests that this may have been associated with the early Medieval Thane of Callendar.

Sponsor: Falkirk Museum, HBM, Ithaca Estates.

G B Bailey 1990.

NS 9035 7934 Excavations to the S of the timber hall found in 1989 (Bailey 1990) showed that the area had been extensively landscaped resulting in the removal of early deposits. Although the original course of the Gallow Syke was found, 18th-century gravel quarries had been followed by earth moving in the 1960s.

Sponsor: Tannson Ltd.

G Bailey 1999