Aberdeen, Castle Street

NJ90NW 318 945 063

The development of the S side of Castle Street/Castle Terrace has enabled an assessment to be carried out on the steep slopes extending southwards down to Virginia Street.

Excavation in the E part of the site below Castle Terrace revealed evidence of considerable 18th to 19th-century terracing and build-up of garden soil layers, but no medieval structures or medieval deposits in situ.

Excavation in the W part of the site behind Castle Street revealed virtually complete destruction of medieval levels on the frontage, where the natural subsoil was at present ground level, suggesting that the area had been scarped prior to the buildings being constructed.

Lower down the slope, however, medieval levels did survive below recent buildings. Extensive excavation into the natural sands seems to have taken place, associated with the building of a substantial clay-bonded retaining wall. This was followed in the 13th-14th centuries by backfilling, mainly with sands and gravels but also with some rubbish, including two broken but virtually complete decorated vessels.

In the 14th-15th centuries, a cobbled stepped lane was constructed, associated with two clay-bonded walls, all running N-S down the hillside. In an area between these walls a large quantity of burned daub was recovered, and also burned wood and twigs associated with a large shallow rectangular depression, perhaps the remains of a building which had burned down.

The lowermost part of the hillside along Virginia Street was known to have been completely excavated for warehouse developments in the 19th century and current developments have shown that no medieval deposits remain.

Sponsor: Barratt (Scotland) Ltd, Aberdeen City Centre Project.

A Cameron and D I Harding 1994b.