{"id":672,"date":"2019-02-20T11:52:50","date_gmt":"2019-02-20T11:52:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/castlestudiestrust.org\/blog\/?p=672"},"modified":"2019-04-29T11:28:12","modified_gmt":"2019-04-29T10:28:12","slug":"going-in-search-of-keith-marischal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/castlestudiestrust.org\/blog\/2019\/02\/20\/going-in-search-of-keith-marischal\/","title":{"rendered":"Going in search of Keith Marischal"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In the later Middle Ages, the Keith family were some of the most important people in Scotland. Sir Robert Keith was made marischal of Scotland in 1293, a title that descended through his heirs. As marishal, Sir Robert and his successors were could hold courts during wartime and were responsible for maintaining order within the Scottish parliament. The castle at Keith Marischal<\/a>, half a day\u2019s journey from Edinburgh, was the family\u2019s ancestral home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For a family which was amongst Scotland\u2019s richest in the 16th<\/sup> century, their seat was an important place which would have embodied their power and prestige. The great hall, the social heart of the castle, vied with royal palaces in its size. William Keith, 7th Earl Marischal was forced to sell Keith Marishcal during the Civil Wars, and, despite being an important piece of Scottish history, the castle was gradually demolished. Part of the castle survives and was incorporated into the later house built on the site, but much of Keith Marischal has vanished.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Stirling Castle’s great hall. Photo by ‘DeFacto’, licensed CC-BY-SA 4.0.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In\n2017, Miles Kerr-Peterson suggested carrying out a geophysical survey to look\nfor buried remains just north of where the house currently stands. He\nsuccessfully applied to the Castle Studies Trust for funding, and in May 2018\nhe and Rose Geophysical Consultants visited Keith Marischal to search for the\nevidence in an area of 2 hectares.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two\nmethods were used: resistivity and ground penetrating radar (GPR). As different\nmaterials conduct electricity differently, testing the electrical resistance of\nthe ground can be used to find features such as walls (high resistance as there\nis little water) or ditches (low resistance as ditches tend to hold water), and\nis effective to a depth of about 0.75m. GPR works by sending electromagnetic\npulses into the ground and tracking how they are reflected. Part of the area\nnorth of the house is a carpark, which makes survey resistivity ineffective,\nbut GPR can still be used.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Deciphering a geophysical survey takes a trained eye. The resistivity survey found several features, and working out what they are has been an interesting challenge. There are two features running in a mostly straight line perpendicular to the current house at the west end of the survey. The longer of the pair could be a drain, but it\u2019s uncertain. And what are the features at the north end? The feature runs beyond the edge of the survey, so we don\u2019t know the full shape and size of it. With trees nearby it could even be part of a root system, but the straight lines suggest it could be man-made and could be part of the lost castle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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GPR\nallows us to peer deeper, and to work out a rough stratigraphy of features. The\nsurvey was able to corroborate some of the anomalies found with resistivity.\nThe pair of parallel features at the west end are visible, but the one on the\nright runs deeper. The fact it\u2019s so narrow suggests it might be a drain. The\nGPR also found an anomaly at the north end of the survey area, lining up with\nthe one found using resistivity. It was visible some 0.38-0.63m deep, which suggests\nit might be artificial rather than natural.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nresults of the survey are certainly interesting. We didn\u2019t find the extent of\nthe lost Keith Marischal Castle, but most discoveries don\u2019t happen overnight.\nGeophysics is an excellent way to identify areas of interest ahead of\nexcavation. Without excavation, we can\u2019t be sure about the interpretation of\nthese features. If the anomaly at the north end of the survey is part of the\nlost castle, we don\u2019t have a way of dating it without breaking out a trowel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The survey was a vital step in the understanding Keith Marischal. Thanks to Miles and Rose Geophysical Consulting, any future excavations will know where to look. Keith Marischal has an exciting future, and the Castle Studies Trust are proud to be able to have played our part in supporting the work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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