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Edinburgh, Princes Street Gardens, General

Garden (19th Century)

Site Name Edinburgh, Princes Street Gardens, General

Classification Garden (19th Century)

Canmore ID 111791

Site Number NT27SE 638

NGR NT 25196 73730

NGR Description Centred on NT 25196 73730

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/111791

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
Canmore Disclaimer. © Copyright and database right 2024.

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Digital Images

Administrative Areas

  • Council Edinburgh, City Of
  • Parish Edinburgh (Edinburgh, City Of)
  • Former Region Lothian
  • Former District City Of Edinburgh
  • Former County Midlothian

Architecture Notes

NT27SE 638.00 25196 73730 (centred)

The gardens fall partly on mapsheet NT27SW.

NT27SE 638.01 NT 2515 7370 Bandstand (Ross bandstand)

NT27SE 638.02 NT 25336 73802 Cottage (Gardeners)

NT27SE 638.03 NT 25333 73761 Commemorative Monument (Royal Scots Monument)

NT27SE 638.04 NT 25016 73652 Commemorative Monument(Robert Louis Stevenson Memorial)

NT27SE 638.05 NT 25161 73711 Bandstand (old)

Architect: J Dick Peddie 1865 - designs for gardens, statues and buildings (not executed).

Architect: David Cousin 1849 - design for East part.

NMRS Print Room

Inglis Photograph Collection

Acc No 1994/90

Group of about 70-80 men, women and boys posing on the steps - St John's Church tower in the background c.1930

(2 prints)

(?perhaps for the unveiling of the American Wall Memorial?)

Activities

Aerial Photography (1 September 1994)

Aerial Photography (14 August 2006)

Aerial Photography (3 August 2006)

Watching Brief (27 February 2008 - 20 May 2008)

NT 24945 73462 A watching brief was undertaken, 27 February–20 May 2008, to monitor ground-breaking works as part of a project to landscape the entrance area to the Princes Street gardens. Excavation was carried out, to a minimum depth of 0.3m, on either side of the entrance, to 1.4m for drain pits on Kings Stables Road, to a depth of up to 1.4m into the raised earth bank, just inside the entrance to the gardens.

During the work the foundation of a 19th-century structure was exposed below the current road surface. Deposits containing 19th-century artefacts extended beyond the limit of excavation on both sides of the Princes Street gardens wall. All deposits related to the landscaping associated with the creation of the gardens and the raising of Kings Stables Road.

Archive: RCAHMS

Funder: Peter McGowan Associates

Edward Bailey (Headland Archaeology Ltd), 2008

Test Pit Survey (1 September 2012 - 1 May 2013)

Site investigation works relating to an ongoing landslip on the northern side of Castle Rock, Princes Street Gardens, Edinburgh (NT 2530 7360), were required. As part of this work, a desk-based assessment was undertaken by CFA in 2012 to provide information on the archaeological potential of the area of the landslip. Prior to the site investigation works, archaeological work monitored the excavation of starter pits for nine boreholes; these were hand dug. No significant archaeological features or deposits were identified, however, a cut for a terrace or other landscaping feature was identified within test-pit BH4 and two aligned stones within test-pit BH5 were interpreted as the edge of an earlier path. Neither of these features were thought to be of any antiquity and probably related to the use of the area as a park. A number of finds were recovered from the test-pits. There were medieval finds and finds of early and late post-medieval date, but almost all contexts produced modern finds. This is suggestive of mixed deposits of material that have accumulated through dumping and landscaping rather than secure archaeological contexts. A geoarchaeological assessment was carried out on the cores from three of the boreholes.The geoarchaeological assessment confirmed that deposits other than natural were present to variable depths between approximately 1.5m to 2m and that natural deposits are present from 0.16m below the surface to c.2m below the surface and earlier studies have shown natural to be more than 5m below the current ground surface in places. Below 2m the soils become progressively undisturbed with a merging boundary between the made ground and natural. Based on the findings of the core inspections, and in conjunction by the earlier work carried out by CFA, the presence of well stratified archaeological deposits or features surviving within the landslip area is considered to be low.

Information from Magnus Kirby (CFA Archaeology Ltd) October 2012. OASIS ID: cfaarcha1-196050

References

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