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Edinburgh, Canongate, Bull's Close

Midden (Period Unassigned)

Site Name Edinburgh, Canongate, Bull's Close

Classification Midden (Period Unassigned)

Alternative Name(s) Carfrae's Entry

Canmore ID 160800

Site Number NT27SE 4335

NGR NT 26533 73785

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/160800

Ordnance Survey licence number AC0000807262. All rights reserved.
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Administrative Areas

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

Archaeology Notes

NT27SE 4335 2653 7379

NT 2653 7379 A watching brief was carried out in February 1998 at the site for the new Scottish Poetry Library, situated 25m S of Canongate between Carfrae's Entry on the W and Bull's Close to the E. The site was excavated to a depth of 3m below ground surface into natural bedrock.

The area was enclosed to the E and N by two upstanding post-medieval mortar-bonded walls of rubble construction, for a N-S orientated rectangular building (21 x 7.5m) facing onto Carfrae's Entry. The structure's partially demolished W wall was recorded 0.6m to the W of the N wall, at a depth of 0.55m below the modern ground surface. No archaeological deposits survived within the internal area of the building, with modern demolition rubble overlying bedrock.

The W wall truncated a late medieval rubbish pit, which contained a mixed assemblage of animal bone and 15th-century pottery. The remains of an unlined circular well (diameter 1.55m) were located 6.6m S and 2m W of the northern end of the above building, locating it within Carfrae's Entry. The well was probably reused as a cess pit in the post-medieval period, with the upper fills containing a small assemblage of 16th/17th-century midden material associated with mats of organic (primarily plant) material.

Sponsor: City of Edinburgh Council.

J A Lawson 1999

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