Document record MAB54772 - CASTLE FRASER PRIVY GARDEN

An evaluation was carried out at this site in 2010 by MAS, commissioned by NTS as part of the Castle Environs Project 2010, to assess the degree of survival of elements of the 17th Century garden shown on an estate map of 1788.

An evaluation was carried out at this site in 2010 by MAS, commissioned by NTS as part of the Castle Environs Project 2010, to assess the degree of survival of elements of the 17th Century garden shown on an estate map of 1788. The area of this Privy Garden covered the flat lawns immediately east of Castle Fraser and part of the field directly to the east. In total, 7 trenches were excavated. In trenches 2 and 5 there was evidence of denuded or ploughed out rig and furrow cultivation, which appears to pre-date the garden and is a relict of the medieval landscape. In trench 7, a well constructed drain was uncovered, stone built with a brick lining and capstones. No features that could be ascribed to the 17th Century garden were revealed in trenches 5 and 6. A variety of finds were uncovered, including several pieces of clay tobacco pipe, pottery sherds ranging from the 15th to the 19th Centuries, fragments of window glass and lead window cames, flint cores and flakes (possibly from a path) and various metal objects, mainly nails but also including a curved stitching needle. The garden depicted on the 1788 plan is likely to have been first designed and laid out soon after the east wing of the castle was completed in 1633/4 and by the time it was dismantled in 1796 the garden had been in existence for over 160 years. A dominant element of the plan of the garden is its asymmetry in relation to the east wall of the castle. The asymmetric line of the design appears to be confirmed by the line of the ditches/trenches in trenches 2, 3 and 4, by planting lines in trench 3, and by linear features in trench 2. No trace of the building shown to the north of the garden on the 1788 estate plan was found.

MURRAY ARCHAEOLOGICAL SERVICES, 2010, CASTLE ENVIRONS PROJECT 2010 CASTLE FRASER - EXCAVATION, Excavation report (Bibliographic reference). SAB4698.

ARCHAEOLOGY SCOTLAND, 2011, DISCOVERY AND EXCAVATION IN SCOTLAND. NEW SERIES, VOLUME 11, 2010, p.17 (Bibliographic reference). SAB5535.

Record last edited

Jan 27 2023 11:17AM