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Edinburgh, Queen's Drive
No Class (Event)
Site Name Edinburgh, Queen's Drive
Classification No Class (Event)
Alternative Name(s) Dynamic Earth Access Road
Canmore ID 160793
Site Number NT27SE 4334
NGR NT 2674 7361
Datum OSGB36 - NGR
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/160793
- Council Edinburgh, City Of
- Parish Edinburgh (Edinburgh, City Of)
- Former Region Lothian
- Former District City Of Edinburgh
- Former County Midlothian
NT27SE 4334 2674 7361
For 'Dynamic Earth' visitor centre (NT 2675 7366), see NT27SE 3880.
NT 2674 7361 Two intersecting earthworks were identified and surveyed prior to machine-excavation of four trial trenches, in advance of road construction in 1998. One trench was found to contain a substantial Victorian culvert, responsible for one of the earthworks. The other three revealed stratigraphy relating to the early post-glacial lake which is known to have existed in the area, followed by a transition into marsh. The first man-made deposits encountered related to 19th-century reclamation and landscaping.
The remaining earthwork was found to be formed from a combination of modern services.
Sponsor: TEAM.
S Stronach 1999.
NT 2674 7361 A watching brief was maintained during the excavation of trenches to link the drainage of the Dynamic Earth building to the main sewer. A power cable was also installed along a section of Queen's Drive. Four trenches were excavated between March and May 1999, running along the E and S sides of the Dynamic Earth Building, and running S down the slope to link with the main E-W sewer. The marl of the post-glacial lake (see Collard 1993) was encountered at a level of 34.22m OD, with its northern boundary 7m S of the Dynamic Earth building. This was overlain by peat, fading into a sticky clay. These natural deposits were cut by an undated E-W ditch, which may be a continuation of the southern of the two ditches seen 15m to the E in a watching brief in 1993. The whole area of the site to the N of Queen's Drive was then landscaped with a substantial (up to 0.8m thick) layer of silty sandy clay, containing rubble and 18th/19th-century material, which was cut in turn by a broad foundation trench for the southern wall of the Younger's Brewery building (now Dynamic Earth). The trench was backfilled with mixed beachsand deposits as a landscaping/levelling layer, with its southern limit 8m S of the wall, up to 1.4m thick and extending over 87m E-W. These deposits were cut in turn by drainage plant associated with the Younger's Brewery building.
Sponsor: TEAM.
D Henderson 1999.
