12 Jul 2025

Summer Dig Day 7


trench 1
Trench 1 - facing north west

We had a good open day today, as we approach the halfway point of our two-week investigation of the inner gatehouse of Elsyng palace.

Slowly but surely we're working our way down through the rubble fill of the cellar feature in trench 1.

We still haven't found the fourth boundary wall of the cellar, which we still think may be the base of a staircase tower, but having removed the consolidated line of rubble/mortar that crossed the north side of the trench, we are still sure that there is a context boundary line at that point.

We are still working on removing the darker deposit north of this line, which is revealing yet more rubble, and we are still holding out hope that a wall line will appear on the alignment of the context change.

wall in T1
The wall in the south west corner of T1. Note the widening and void in the bricks below it.

Meanwhile we also worked to reveal more of the wall in the south west corner of the trench. See today's schematic diagram.

As we worked around this wall, we found the northern end of it broadens slightly, and in fact just as it enters the western baulk of the trench, the beginnings of a bevelled return corner can be seen.

As if that wasn't surprising enough, later in the afternoon as the level of surrounding rubble became low enough, a moderately large void in the brickwork emerged.

void
The void in the wall

Eventually we were able to expose the void in the brickwork, which appears to be a roughly square socket set into the broadening of the wall, with signs of roof tiles having been mortared in as packing around whatever once fit into it.

This is presumably a socket for something like a fairly substantial timber, which would have been salvaged for reuse or sale by the seventeenth century demolition team before the tower was felled, filling it with rubble.

wall corner
Solid mortar/rubble behind the wall in the south west corner of T1

At the same time, studying the top of the wall showed that its width did not take it into the corner of the trench; there is a triangle of very solid mortar and crushed brick (see diagram above) on what ought to be the wall's exterior.

Late this afternoon we started work removing the mortar to try and find out if there is more in-situ structure under here, or if it's a peculiarity of the wall's construction, and hopefully will find out tomorrow.

Please Note

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