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Edinburgh Castle, Fore Well

Well (Medieval)

Site Name Edinburgh Castle, Fore Well

Classification Well (Medieval)

Canmore ID 52097

Site Number NT27SE 1.08

NGR NT 25199 73482

Datum OSGB36 - NGR

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/site/52097

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 1.08 25199 73482.

Fore Well (NR).

OS 1/1250 plan, (1947).

Name changed from Draw Well.

Information from OS recorder (AHL) 14 December 1950.

This well supplied the water for the storage tanks built over the ruin of David's Tower. The well is 110 feet deep, the lower 90 feet being hewn out of the rock.

J S Richardson and M Wood 1948.

Similar information as in the official guide book. (RCAHMS 1951). Visited by OS(JLD) 26 October 1953.

(NT 2520 7347) As described above.

Visited by OS(JLD) 29 December 1953.

As described by previous field report.

Visited by OS(SFS) 10 November 1975.

Activities

Publication Account (1951)

THE FORE-WELL.

On the E. of the chapel the head of the “Long Stairs”, once closed by “St.Margaret's Gate”, rises to the nearer end of the Fore-Wall Battery, whose name is possibly a corruption of Fore-Well, for the well itself lies at the farther end. It is 110 ft. deep, but the upper 24 ft., circular in section and steened with ashlar, is an extension. The lower part, hewn through the rock, is about 10 ft. square, tapering to 4 ft. square at the bottom. This is apparently the well that was filled in when the Castle was dismantled in 1313. Choked with debris in the siege of 1573, it was cleaned out and extended in 1574 to suit the new system of defences, while latterly it supplied three storage tanks built within the ruins encased by the Half Moon Battery. When it was cleaned out in 1913 no objects of special interest were found. Immediately N. of the well the Fore-Wall Battery joins the rounded end of the Half-Moon Battery, the wall of which had to be repaired farther E. after 1639, at a point where a broad buttress can still be seen.

RCAHMS 1951

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