Dig Diary Five: Digging in to the archives part two

In the fifth of our Dig Diaries Sophie Ambler discusses the work she is doing investigating the Lowther archives and seeing how the written record helps with the archaeology.

In the third Dig Diary for the Lowther Castle and Village project, I introduced the (patchy) written evidence for the Norman conquest and colonisation of Cumbria – potentially when our site was established. Here, I’ll introduce some of the earliest written evidence for our site, dating from the thirteenth century.

Our evidence comes from the archive of the Lowther family, held in the Cumbria Archive Centre in Carlisle. This archive is largely uncatalogued, held in boxes arranged by manor (administrative units within the larger estate). There are six boxes pertaining to the Lowther manor, containing several centuries’ worth of documents. Sifting through them is a long but exciting task.

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Readers might have spotted that ‘Lowther’ – the name of the family that has held the estate for centuries, as well as the name of our manor and village – is not a Norman name. In fact, ‘Lowther’ is the name of the river running below our site. The name’s origins are uncertain but might derive from the Old Norse for ‘foaming water’. The Lowther manor and its principal settlement (our village site) took their names from the river, and the family took its name from the manor and/or village. This practice was common in the thirteenth century. People didn’t generally have surnames (sometimes occupational names, e.g. John le Carpenter), and were often referred to either by their parentage (e.g. John fitz/son of Agnes) or their home (e.g. John of Hackthorpe).

Our central character is Hugh fitz Geoffrey of Lowther – or, as he was more commonly known, simply Hugh of Lowther. In the 1280s, Hugh was one of several men known as so-and-so ‘of Lowther’. He was one of the manor’s four leading landholders, who held their lands in Lowther from a tenant-in-chief of the king. But it was Hugh who would make his fortune, so that in the fourteenth century his descendant could be described as ‘Hugh of Lowther, lord of Lowther’.

Hugh made his money as a sergeant (an early form of barrister) in the central courts of King Edward I. His career has been traced by Professor Paul Brand, who has researched the emergence of a new class of professional lawyers in the late thirteenth century. Hugh, together with his wife Ivette, used the money earned practising law to build a property portfolio in Lowther manor and village. By c.1292, Hugh had become a knight. (He also went on to take part in Edward I’s conquest of Scotland, but that’s another story!)

Charter of Alice daughter of Peter of Thrimby for Hugh de Lowther_Carlisle DLONS-L-5-1-26 LO35. Alice-castle

It’s the documents drawn up for Hugh and others of the manorial community to record grants, sales and exchanges of land that provide our evidence for the site. These give the names of the women and men granting or receiving property, the names of the men who stood witness to a grant, and the parcels of property conveyed – sometimes described with highly localised placenames, and landmarks.

Using this material as evidence for the landscape and use of our site, together with archaeological findings, will be a long and fiddly process, but here’s a taster.

This is a charter, dating probably to the 1280s, recording two points. First, a grant of two acres of land in Lowther by Alice daughter of Peter of Thrimby to Hugh of Lowther (comprising various small parcels, each described by local names). Second, Alice’s quitclaim to Hugh of rights in three acres and half a rood of land (there were four roods in an acre) in the vill of Lowther, which she and her late husband, William fitz Richard of Hackthorpe, had demised to Matthew of Rosgill, chaplain. Again this land is broken into parcels, each described. One of these is half a rood (an eighth of an acre) ‘above the castle’. You can see ‘castellum’ along the lateral fold of the charter. 

Could this refer to the ringwork castle we’re investigating? This would be a good bet, as there is no evidence of another castle on the site at this date. In which case, this reference gives us a glimpse of how people in the village were using the castle as a marker in their landscape.

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Charter archive reference: Carlisle Archive Centre, Carlisle, DLONS/L/5/1/26 LO35, Copyright Lowther Estates.

What’s on at the Castle Studies Trust Anniversary Conference

With our 10 year anniversary conference on Saturday 10 June at the University of Winchester fast approaching as a taster here for the conference here are the abstracts for Dr Karen Dempsey’s keynote and all 15 papers being given.

Keynote

Who cares? Thinking again about medieval castles – Dr Karen Dempsey

The foundation statement of the Castle Studies Group underlined the need to research castles not as an isolated phenomenon, but in a holistic manner that explored their wider inter-relationships with medieval economy, society, and environment. Over the past few decades, castles have received such attention with increasingly more scholarship considering gender and space including a particular focus on the garden. However, despite these excellent additions, castle studies has often appeared to somewhat lag behind theoretically in archaeology. In this paper, it is not my intention to critique this nor do I want give you an historiography of the discipline or even an account of current thinking. I want to root something different into our studies, to offer another way of thinking or engaging with the past. I want to consider care as a structing principle within society and offer medieval castle households as a case-study.

Session One

 The Medieval towers of Central Greece – Dr Andrew Blackler

The great tower, as R Allen Brown once wrote, is the essence of the castle. The archaeological focus on Greece’s classical heritage has overshadowed the existence of hundreds of such medieval towers in Greece. This is a period during which western Crusaders, and Turkish and Arab forces vied with the Byzantine empire for control of the eastern Mediterranean. Whilst some research has been undertaken into major fortresses of the region little is known about the smaller castles, evidence of whose existence survives in these austere towers, often rising to a height of nearly twenty metres.

Most are undocumented, and neither their builders nor function in the landscape is known. The present literature with little hard evidence defines the towers as colonial structures built to control the local Greek population and display the power of western (Norman, Frankish, Italian, Catalan) feudal landlords over their estates. Research by the author over the last ten years challenges this view. This paper discusses how we need to comprehend their architecture, their immediate built environment, and function within the landscape in a much more nuanced way.

Laboratory analysis of wood and mortar samples (due in March 2023 – sponsored by the Castle Studies Trust) from seven towers on Euboea, an island off the eastern seabord of Central Greece, is expected to throw further light on their construction date and therefore the historical context within which they were built. The conclusions from this will also be presented.

The Lower Thames Fortifications from 1380 to 1872 – Paul Mersh

This paper traces the development of fortifications that were built to defend London from attack along the Thames and their impact on the local area. From the 14th century until the second world war London was defended by a line of ‘outer defenses’ in the lower Thames area. These defenses began with Cooling Castle which was built around 1380 to defend against French raids. This castle was one of the first to be built for cannons.

The defenses were substantially upgraded with block houses in the 16th century, a star shaped fort at Tilbury in the 17th century and gun emplacements in Gravesend in the 18th century. In 1860 the Royal Commission on the Defense of the United Kingdom recommended that the forts at Gravesend and Tilbury be substantially upgraded and three new forts be built in the Lower Thames area. Once again, these upgraded defenses were built to defend against the French. The building of these forts was supervised by Charles Gordon – Gordon of Khartoum.

What dictated the design of these fortifications? There were two factors, one was the
design of ships. The second was improved ships’ guns. It was like a five hundred year
arms race. The building of these later forts had a considerable impact on the local area.

Some £50,000 was allocated for the work on the Lower Thames Forts, this is the
equivalent of £15,000,000 in today’s money. This paper concludes by examining this
impact.

Castles and urban settlements under the rule of Matilda of Tuscany-Canossa in the late 11th and early 12th century Dr Rosa Smurra

The paper aims to explore the connections between Matilda of Tuscany-Canossa’s castles and the emergent communes in Italy.

Castles were of great importance in the establishment of the Canossa dynastic rule (10th-12th centuries)  and the maintenance of their power for at least five generations. Castles were crucial particularly during the period of the emergence of the communes in Italy, which marked a fundamental change in the government and political regimes of all the major cities and towns in northern Italy, including, of course, those under Matilda’s rule, the Canossa last ruler. Matilda of Tuscany-Canossa (1046-1115) is among the most significant female rulers of the European Middle Ages. She was countess and duchess of a vast domain, stretching from Lombardy to Latium, which she ruled in her own right. Although a vassal of the German emperors and bound to them by blood ties, she assisted seven popes, thus determining the fate of the so-called Investiture Controversy and eventually of the whole of Christendom.

What was the role played by the Matilda castles in these circumstances and especially for the nascent communes? How did Matilda’s castles condition these institutional changes?

What was their impact on the establishment and evolution of the network of urban settlements that still characterises the landscape of the Po valley today?

Analysis of a quite rich documentary record produced before and during the Matilda rule and integrated into the GIS platform of a digital atlas exploring both the environment and communication network attempt to answer these questions.

To come along to the conference sign up here: Castle Studies Present and Future: Castle Studies Trust conference Tickets, Sat 10 Jun 2023 at 10:00 | Eventbrite

Session Two

Childbirth in the castle: Alice Thornton’s trip to Middleham, 1644 – Dr Jo Edge

Alice Thornton (1626-1707), writing one of her four autobiographies in the late 17th century, described an incident which took place decades earlier. While travelling on horseback to Middleham Castle in August 1644, she nearly drowned crossing the river. 18-year-old Alice made this trip because her older sister, Katherine Danby, was in labour for the 15th time:

At that time Sir Thomas Danby was forced with my sister and children to be in safety, from the Parliament forces, he being for King Charles the first, to Middleham Castle, a garrison under my Lord Loftus. There she was delivered of her first son Francis Danby. My sister got my Lord Loftus and myself with Co. Branlen for witness.

Summer 1644 was a dangerous time to be in North Yorkshire, especially as a young, royalist woman. Just the month before, Parliamentarian soldiers been victorious at the battle of Marston Moor, and soldiers were garrisoned everywhere. Danby was fugitive, and he and his wife and children had sought refuge at Middleham, owned by family friends and fellow royalists Edward and Jane Loftus.

We know about royal children born in castles – and indeed, Edward, son of Richard III – had been born at Middleham some 160 years earlier. But this wasn’t a birth of a royal, nor one that happened in normal circumstances. This paper will examine and imagine the feminine space of the birthing chamber within a garrisoned castle, using the work of Roberta Gilchrist, Karen Dempsey and Rachel Delman as starting points.

Holding Court at Windsor: the Royal Household under George III – Amanda Westcott

The prevalence of his “Farmer George” persona often obscures the nature of courtly lifestyles that George III facilitated outside of London among his closest aristocratic courtiers and throughout the wider royal household. The study of alternative courtly venues is a helpful approach to the circles of sociability that, from the late eighteenth century, were more frequently gathered in settings beyond St. James’s Palace. Beginning in the early 1780s, when the king and his queen consort, Charlotte, assembled their large family and circle of attendants at Windsor Castle, they likewise convened a community with distinctive spatial features and social structures. Time spent living in the countryside established an integrated network of courtiers supported by shared interests in the period’s rural and leisured pursuits especially accommodated at Windsor, including hunting, architecture and landscape design, music, country house tourism, and the enlightened study of subjects like botany, agriculture, and astronomy. In particular, the gendered elements at court and the organization of Queen Charlotte’s own household provide a unique lens to the castle’s importance as a courtly venue. Themes concerning the royal household’s spatial accommodation at Windsor, as well as the social hierarchies instilled in royal routine there, further aid discussions of the variety of social identities cultivated at this court in addition to the nature of late-Hanoverian kingship at its helm.

Domesticity, militarisation, and lordly power during the British Civil WarsTristan Griffith

This paper will explore the continuing importance of the castle as a lordly seat during the British Civil Wars of the mid-seventeenth century: this builds on the work of scholars such as Coulson, who long ago demonstrated the inadequacy of a binary fortified/domestic dichotomy in the study of structures such as castles and other fortified dwellings. As its principle case studies it will take Skipton Castle in Yorkshire and Lathom House, formerly in Lancashire, both large fortified dwellings which were renovated extensively in the decades before the Civil Wars, and which were turned into fortress garrisons by the Royalists—supporters of Charles I.

At Skipton, the renovations included the reconstruction of the castle gatehouse with a new dining room and neoplatonic grotto, but also additional gunloops; this demonstrated that the castle’s owners, the Clifford Earls of Cumberland, continued to prize both military preparedness and conspicuous luxury to assert their supremacy over the local gentry. During the Civil Wars the Cliffords’ network of gentry supporters formed the basis for the Royalist garrison—most of whose officers were local gentlemen. At Lathom, the seat of the Stanley family, the Countess of Derby levered both her home’s impressive defences and its position at the centre of the Stanley powerbase in Lancashire to hold it against a lengthy and destructive Parliamentarian siege; Lathom’s antebellum magnificence had a definite military result during the conflict—Lady Derby’s supporters held the castle until relieved by Prince Rupert.

To come along to the conference sign up here: Castle Studies Present and Future: Castle Studies Trust conference Tickets, Sat 10 Jun 2023 at 10:00 | Eventbrite

Session 3

Connecting medieval castles and the Legacies of Slavery: evidence and significance from two English case studies Dr Will Wyeth

This paper presents findings from investigations into the legacies of Slavery at two ruined medieval castles in the care of English Heritage: Beeston Castle (Cheshire) and Brougham Castle (Cumbria). In the context of ongoing public discourse in the United Kingdom around the ways in which the country’s colonial and imperial past is discussed, as well as an established body of research exploring the connections between the slave trade and country houses, it is timely to consider the extent to which monuments from the medieval past are entwined with the profits from Slavery. A recent revision of the guidebooks for both properties has occasioned a closer examination of the lives and legacies of individuals connected to the ownership and restoration these sites in the middle of the 19th century. By constructing a picture of wealth, privilege and society in which these individuals lived over several decades of this period, it is possible to establish with greater confidence the extent to which the legacies of the Slavery form part of the construction these castles’ medieval past in the post-medieval era. The significance of these connections is discussed.

Foundation Myth and ‘Medieval’ Identity: The case of Bungay Castle – Dr Laura-Jane Richardson

Bungay Castle was founded sometime in the 12th century, and overlooks the Waveney Valley, the geographical divide between Norfolk and Suffolk. The Castle was part-excavated by an amateur team in 1935-36, and very little archaeological work has taken place on the site since. In the aftermath of the First World War, Bungay Castle played an important local role reflecting Englishness and heritage identity. In the light of these excavations and a growing awareness of the benefits of heritage tourism at the time, the Castle was used in the development of local mythology and historic misinterpretation during the 1930s and 1940s. This paper will examine the development of these mythologies alongside the campaign to adopt the Castle by the townsfolk, and reflect on the modern relationship between imagined castle life, medieval pasts and heritage identity in this small market town.

Jews’ Towers in England Castles: The Cases of Lincoln, London and WinchesterDean Irwin

In his 1982 article, ‘Jews and castles in medieval England’, Vivian D. Lipman considered the relationship of between Jews and castles. Although some of his conclusions have been challenged by Robert C. Stacey and myself, it is clear that castles were an important part of Anglo-Jewish life between 1066 and 1290. Increasingly, Jews are being included in the presentation of sites to the general public, although this typically follows the ‘Dark Tourism’ route. Heavy emphasis was given to the role of a castle as a prison and site of execution in the recent rebranding of the Tower of London. Equally, Clifford’s Tower (York) understandably focuses on the massacre of 16-17 March 1190. This paper, in contrast, focuses on the towers which were associated with the Jews at the castles of Lincoln (Aaron’s Tower), London (Hagin’s Tower), and Winchester (Jews’ Tower). In so doing, it argues that the Jews occupied a legitimate space within English castles as part of the royal administration of the community. Far from being sites purely of victimhood, castles were generally sites where leading Jew worked with royal officials (often the sheriff) on communal administration. This is an underexplored element of both Castle Studies and Anglo-Jewish history, but emphasises that we should not simply view the relationship between castles and Jews as one of oppression, imprisonment, and violence. Rather, it argues for the inclusion of minority groups within narratives of castles in a collaborative sense.

To come along to the conference sign up here: Castle Studies Present and Future: Castle Studies Trust conference Tickets, Sat 10 Jun 2023 at 10:00 | Eventbrite

Session 4

New theories, old practices? Examining visitors’ perceptions of castles – Lynsey McLaughlin

‘Ask anyone to visualise the Middle Ages and they will, almost invariably, conjure up the image of the castle’ (Liddiard, 2005, xi).

There has been a transition in the understanding of castles in the later part of the 20th century in castle studies. The focus has shifted from one heavily centred around a military interpretation, to placing them in a wider context, particularly considering their role as symbols of status. Whilst this new approach has been largely unchallenged within academia, organisations that open castles to the public have been accused of retaining the overtly military interpretation to lure visitors through the door. My PhD asks whether castle sites really do capitalise on medievalist tropes, and what effect this has on the people that visit. This presentation reviews the results from four castles: Richmond, Corfe, Bodiam and Orford. It considers visitor data, interviews with staff and presentation methods used by castles. The results demonstrate that, whilst the castle and the people who manage it do utilise medievalist tropes, visitors’ perceptions and understanding of the castle are not affected. In addition, tensions appeared between different staff groups over what they perceived visitors wanted. 

The Medieval Castle through a Post-Medieval Lens – Ann Walton

Long relegated to the category of military history, English castles have enjoyed a recent growth in scholarly interest. A survey of recent publications shows that most focus on the medieval history of the buildings, however, as the urban castles of the Conquest approach the end of their first millennium, it is important to acknowledge that they did not wait patiently to become tourist sites but continued to develop over time in both function and appearance.


My paper focuses on the post-medieval life of English urban castles through the case
study of Lincoln Castle, and seeks to answer the following question: In what ways is the survival of urban castles predicated on their ability to adapt to evolving needs and functions, and how did popular and scholarly attitudes towards castles affect their continued use and preservation? In addition to functional and physical alterations made to castles during their post-medieval history, I will explore the role played by developments such as Antiquarianism and Romanticism in the
preservation of these structures, and more importantly, in the shaping of modern perceptions of the medieval castle.

Through this paper I contextualize the post-medieval life of Lincoln Castle within
contemporary social, scholarly and architectural trends. By giving the past five hundred years of the castle’s history the attention usually reserved for the earliest period of its development I will analyze the context of these later stages highlighting the impact of post-medieval castle development on our understanding of the castle as a whole.

1283 in 1983: Castles, Commoditization and the Commemoration of the Medieval Welsh Past – Dr Euryn Rhys Roberts,

Do come to the Wales Festival of Castles. We’ve been preparing it for 700 years” was the cheerful invitation emblazoned on the pages of the Chicago Tribune on 10 April 1983. The Wales Festival of Castles, or Cestyll ’83 (Castles ’83) as it was branded, was a Wales Tourist Board and British Tourist Authority marketing promotion to boost the international profile of Wales as a holiday destination. Yet, what was intended as an uncontentious tourist promotion became a matter of some controversy, with some seeing the Festival as a celebration of the 1282-3 conquest of Wales writ large and the castles of Edward I. Drawing on archival material from local and national archives, this paper sets out to trace the history of the Festival and to provide a commentary on how the medieval Welsh past was used and abused in the early 1980s. On the one hand, it is a story of how competing voices struggled over the image of the castle in Wales, and on the other of how the past came to colour the discourses and practices of those who sought to promote Wales as a holiday destination and of those who felt compelled to protest against the Festival.

To come along to the conference sign up here: Castle Studies Present and Future: Castle Studies Trust conference Tickets, Sat 10 Jun 2023 at 10:00 | Eventbrite

Session Five

Hornby Castle Wensleydale North Yorkshire:- “An Elite Holiday Home of the Later Middle Ages” Dr Erik Matthews

Fieldwork at Hornby Castle Wensleydale North Yorkshire undertaken since 2010 has thrown significant light on a moated hunting lodge complex developed first by the Dukes of Brittany in the early 12th Century and then “modernised” by the Nevilles of Redbourne in Lincolnshire in the 14th Century. I shall discuss the important role played by the development of castle sites as places of elite bonding and recreation through hunting and other pursuits in demonstrating the status of the owner and developing the essential links with others of the same class as part of a common European wide culture. I will focus in on the information gleaned from Hornby in terms of the Park and its layout, the hunting lodge and its surroundings notably the development of a surrounding “watery landscape” and I shall also reference the evidence of an elite “material culture of taste” which has come to light. I shall draw parallels with the Country House of the Late 17th/18th Century and look for conclusions in terms of better understanding the interaction of the Castle with its surrounding landscape and its purpose.

The Clockwork Castle: Interactions between the castle and the temporalities of the landscape, and their implications for surrounding medieval communitiesArthur Redmonds

The underutilisation of theoretical approaches within Later Medieval archaeology and castle studies has been highlighted by numerous scholars, yet recent studies and this symposium seek to demonstrate new complementary approaches. This paper aims to contribute to this reimagining, utilising a theoretical framework based around Tim Ingold’s concepts of the dwelling perspective and the taskscape to demonstrate the temporal influence of the castle.

These concepts will allow this paper to demonstrate the considerable impacts the presence of a castle might have had on multiple forms of temporality within the landscape. Taskscape as a concept is inherently focused on viewing place and interactions as temporality materialised, and it can be shown that castle builders and occupants were more than aware of the implications of dominion over time. Through centring itself in everyday, seasonal, and more long-term environmental cycles, the castle drastically impacted local social memory, lived experiences, and notions of social order. All became warped according to the social ambition of castle builders, and their place in time.

This holistic scope also allows for underutilised methodological avenues to be explored within castle studies, namely the landscape materiality of the everyday communities surrounding the castle. ‘Big data’ approaches to archaeology continue to allow new avenues of exploration, and spatially located Portable Antiquity Scheme data will be integrated into the conclusions of this paper alongside more orthodox approaches to castle studies.

Overall, this paper will explore a new vision of the castle as a part of the interwoven temporalities of the medieval taskscape.

Countess Isabella de Fortibus and her building works at Carisbrooke Castle – Dr Therron Welsted

Isabella de Fortibus , or Forz, (c.1237-1293), after the deaths of her husband, William de Forz, count of Aumale in 1260 and her brother, Baldwin de Redvers earl of Devon, two year later, became an extremely rich landholder. She is best known for her apparent love of litigation, with many court cases being held in her name, often concurrently.

This paper looks at a different side to her life, her as the builder of Carisbrooke Castle (Isle of Wight), which became her primary residence after inheriting it from her brother. Through looking at the surviving building accounts, it is clear there was essentially a total reorganisation of the castle with many new constructions, in this period.

There has been little critical analysis of the building works undertaken for Isabella since the 1890s when Percy Stone, an architect and archaeologist, undertook a detailed study of Carisbrooke Castle. This paper presents the ongoing research about the castle in the thirteenth century, as part of a current project reassessing Isabella’s life.

The interdisciplinary research behind the paper draws from a wide variety evidence, including the upstanding remains of the castle, both upstanding and archived; archaeological reports; and manuscript material, such as court records, accounts and a survey of the castle undertaken shortly after her death.

To come along to the conference sign up here: Castle Studies Present and Future: Castle Studies Trust conference Tickets, Sat 10 Jun 2023 at 10:00 | Eventbrite




Cannons and palaces? Surely a mistake…?

By Dr Peter Purton

Most people know what a palace is. Defining a castle is a bit trickier, despite half a century having passed since the traditional military version was challenged and replaced by modern castellologists. But most agree that the symbolic and residential roles of a palace must be included in any understanding of a castle. If you look at any plan of a German castle you will see the word ‘Palas’ attached to the main building inside it; this definition reaches down the scale to the smallest Irish tower house, where the modest tower represents the ‘palace’ of a landowner, at least in their own eyes and certainly as seen by the peasants living around them, or their peers living in similar towers nearby.

Medieval rulers began to make use of gunpowder weapons to wage war from the middle of the fourteenth century. I am co-writing, with Dr Christof Krauskopf (who works at the Brandenburg Authorities for Heritage Management and Archaeological State Museum in Germany), a new book studying how fortifications evolved during the first two centuries of gunpowder weaponry.

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It is commonly accepted that over time (for England, most would say this occurred under the Tudors) any military role for castles disappeared altogether, and instead became the exclusive remit of forts and fortresses (Henry VIII’s coastal artillery forts, for example, which despite their English Heritage titles are not castles), while royalty and nobility resided in palaces and country houses. But what happened before this point was reached? Were defensive functions also fulfilled by the palatial castles built by royals and nobles after guns began to make a significant impact on the conduct of war?

Vincennes (Val de Marne, France), the donjon. The outer ‘chemise’ is not medieval. Copyright Dr Peter Purton

Vincennes is an immense royal castle (today at the eastern end of a Paris metro line) commissioned by King Charles V (1364-80) during the Hundred Years War [fig.1]. It is a superb statement of power and wealth reflected in its design and décor. But atop the multi-storey donjon is an unadorned floor whose walls are pierced by loops and windows for crossbows and small guns, and (for avoidance of doubt), the garrison included canoniers in 1379. Across the Channel at the same time, gun loops were being included in castles belonging to English aristocrats: in Kent, for example, a regular target for seaborne attacks, the archbishop’s castle at Saltwood and the parvenu Cobham’s enclosure at Cooling [fig. 2].

Cooling Castle (Kent, England), 1380-85, by Sir John de Cobham. Copyright Dr Peter Purton

Jumping ahead by nearly a century brings us to a time where in England the role of castles during the Wars of the Roses was no longer to serve as the object of siege and defence. A not dissimilar political scenario existed in Iberia, where immensely wealthy noble families vied for control of the kingdom of Castile, and neighbours Portugal and Aragon frequently interfered. Just as elsewhere in Europe, these magnates built magnificent palaces reflecting their status. They also raised private armies to attack rivals. In the province of Madrid is Manzanares el Real [fig.3], built by the famous architect Gruas for the Mendozas, dukes of Infantado (who still own it) from the middle of the fifteenth century. Its walls and turrets sport spectacular ornamentation and the interior is graced by ornate galleries. It is surrounded by what the Spanish call a barrera, a towered lower outer wall liberally provided with gun embrasures. Gaining entry involves going through a pair of (gun-looped) gate towers then taking two turns around the foot of the inner wall.

Manzanares el Real (Madrid province, Spain), photographed at the start of its second restoration in 1975. Copyright Dr Peter Purton

In the end, whether one believes that such defensive measures designed for guns were seriously intended for defence, or were themselves merely ornamental, is a matter of judgement. No evidence survives to explain the intentions of the builders. It is a continuation of the same debate that questioned whether arrow loops were meant to be – or could be – used, recast for the age of gunpowder.

There is an alternative approach: maybe such buildings could be both at the same time, and even the least practicable gun loops might deter raiders (compare Bodiam). In this scenario, there might be no distinction between a palace and a castle and a medieval noble might not understand the argument. Perhaps it was when the cost of defences that would be effective in the new world of the early modern state became prohibitive that aristocrats abandoned the military aspects of their castle-palaces altogether?

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Raby Castle: Mapping the Hillocks

As the Castle Studies Trust funded part of the project to learn more about Raby Castle comes to a close, the funding of the digital modelling of Raby’s exterior, the castle’s curator, Julie Bidescombe-Brown explores what they have found so far which includes a short preview of the model in its glory.

Throughout 2022, the team at Raby Castle has been working with Durham University Archaeological Services on a project funded by the Castle Studies Trust to drone scan and create a digital 3d model of the entire castle exterior. At the project draws to a close, Raby’s Curator Julie Biddlecombe-Brown reflects on the work undertaken over the last year, including both the planned outcomes and unexpected benefits of the work undertaken.

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‘At the time of writing this blog, I am waiting with bated breath for an email that marks the end of a truly game-changing project for Raby Castle. The email will include the final embedded link to a detailed digital model of Raby Castle’s exterior produced over a series of drone scans during the summer months of 2022. The sneak preview given to the castle team was breath-taking. When we applied to the Castle Studies Trust for support for the grant I had no idea of the level of detail that the technology now enabled. My initial application for funding was based on the creation of a digital model that could be used as the basis for future interpretation; a tool for presenting the castle to new audiences. What we have achieved has ended up to be so much more.

For those not familiar with Raby Castle, this beautiful building in the south of County Durham has remained the family home of the Vane family for almost 400 years. Harry Vane, twelfth Baron Barnard is the current owner and along with his wife, Lady Kate Barnard, has set out ambitious plans to ensure the future sustainability of the castle and wider estate. This project reflects their vision, setting out to better understand the estate so that responsible stewardship of rich heritage assets can see the castle enjoyed and studied by future generations.

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Going back to the castle itself: from the exterior, it is one of the most intact 14th century castles in the north of England, adapted over the centuries to provide luxurious accommodation for the two families who have lived here. First, the medieval northern powerhouse of the Neville Family who lost the castle after the failed Rising of the North. It was the Neville family who created most of what can be seen today, their license to fortify the castle having been granted by Bishop Hatfield of Durham in 1378.  Second, the Vanes, later Barons Barnard, Earls of Darlington and Dukes of Cleveland came to Raby after purchasing the castle in 1626. Over two hundred years later, what remains the castle’s most comprehensive history was written by Catherine Lucy Wilhelmina Vane, the 4th Duchess of Cleveland, in 1870,  a formidable scholar and biographer whose engaging narratives combine clear research of the sources available to her, with a delightful peppering of artistic license. Her handbook has also been a useful tool in this project, with descriptions of alterations, anomalies and observations that come with complete familiarity with a site. The Duchess clearly loved the castle and during the late 19th century welcomed guests from across the globe. Earlier generations of her husband’s family down-played the castle’s splendour. Courtier Sir Henry Vane, who bought the castle in 1626 twice received Charles I there; first in May, 1633; and again in April 1639.  Charles is said to have been greatly struck by the size of the castle, and to have rebuked Sir Henry for speaking of it somewhat irreverently as a ‘mere hillock of stone.’  ‘Call ye that a hillock of stone? By my faith,’ said he, ‘I have not such another hillock of stones in all my realms.”

Images of Raby Castle have been captured for centuries. Above: 1728 Engraving of Raby Castle from the southeast. Samuel & Nathaniel Buck. These topographical images, whilst subjective and sometimes inaccurate, have provided a valuable source in considering the appearance of the castle in the past. Such images shed light on demolished features, such as the barbican depicted here on the eastern (left hand) side of the castle which then has the potential to be ‘virtually reconstructed’ on the base digital model,  

You can judge the latest capturing of ‘the hillock’ yourself, by viewing the model funded by this project. Available to the castle team in multiple formats, from a wireframe for digital manipulation to fully overlaid with photographs for a full ‘photo-real’ view, the scan has created a snapshot of the castle at a moment in time but helps us look backwards into its history and forward, securing its future.  The Raby team is working with Heritage Interactive, sector AV specialists to adapt the model to be public facing and engage visitors with the story of the medieval fabric in a new introductory film that we will launch next year. But the model also gives us the potential to add to this; to explore later phases of development in the same way, to isolate, interpret and even digitally rebuild key features that have changed over time, such as the removal of the 14th century barbican in the late 18th century, creating the now slightly confusing Chapel Gateway, or exploring the remains of passages, staircases and windows that make no sense in the current configuration of the building.  

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The base-line data has multiple benefits – in addition to creating new films, we are exploring 3d printing of a model of the castle in jigsaw puzzle-like sections for use with schools and other audiences – what better way to inspire a new generation of castle enthusiasts than to couple the challenge of a puzzle with a superb digital model? The level of detail will also be of huge benefit to the castle buildings team in monitoring condition, working in tandem with our conservation architects who can now view the fabric almost stone-by-stone. This will, we anticipate, not only help us to detect any building changes that might need attention but will also help us in master planning for the future.

A complimentary annex to the project, funded in-house is an archaeological report by Durham University Archaeological Services that will sit alongside the model.  This collation and analysis of source material – including what we have learned about the existing fabric – has been led by Senior Archaeologist Richard Annis who over the course of 2022 has delved into every nook and cranny of the castle – peering under floorboards, climbing disused staircases and opening the door of every built-in cupboard to see what lies behind. This level of survey has never been done and when linked to the model, and an examination of known archival and other documentary sources compiled by a willing group of volunteers, we start 2023 with a far better understanding of this remarkable building than ever before. The report and model will be used together by the castle team including custodian, curatorial, archive and buildings teams,  and of course our conservation architects as we care for and interpret the castle and will be available as a resource to scholars and academics, hopefully inspiring future research.

And of course, there is still research to be done! The project may have answered questions but has left us with many new ones. Over the coming months, or should that be years …  we will continue to explore some of the puzzles of the building, from the origins of some of the towers, to vertical access routes. But what has changed over the last year is that we now have a superb data set as a starting point. Our thanks go to Archaeological Services Durham University and in particular Richard Annis for bringing their enthusiasm, skills, expertise and inquisitive minds to the project, and also, of course, to the Castle Studies Trust which provided us with the funding to enable it all to happen.

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Is the Wirk a Castle? Evaluating previous excavations

Delayed by the pandemic, at long last our 2020 project to see if the Wirk, in the Orkneys, was a castle is now complete. Project leads Sarah Jane Gibbon & Dan Lee look at what they found.

A programme of archaeological fieldwork funded by Castle Studies Trust was undertaken at The Wirk, on the island of Rousay, Orkney by the Orkney Research Centre for Archaeology during 2020-21 (UHI Archaeology Institute). The Wirk comprises the remains of an upstanding stone-built tower with the site of an adjoining hall range to the east, which are stylistically considered to be 12th century in date. The site was part of a high-status Norse settlement with a medieval chapel nearby (below the present St Mary’s kirk) and Norse hall further to the south at Skaill (Research projects – Landscapes of Change: Archaeologies of the Rousay Clearances & the Westness Estate (uhi.ac.uk)). The project aimed to characterise The Wirk with geophysical survey, undertake evaluation excavation to assess the hall and recover material suitable for radiocarbon dating.

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1.    Clouston’s excavations at The Wirk in the 1920’s showing investigations in the tower (Credit: Orkney Library & Archive, used with permission).

The Wirk was excavated in the 1920s by J. S. Clouston, who had excavated at other Norse castle sites in Orkney. Later dates have since been suggested for the The Wirk (16th century), however the date of the buildings, their function and the relationship between the tower and range remained open to debate. Clouston’s excavations focused on the tower and exposed the remains of a hall and ancillary buildings upslope to the east. He made a detailed plan of the site showing the tower and hall. Few finds were recovered but they did include a highly decorated stone finial now on display in Tankerness House Museum, Kirkwall. The impressive tower survives today, but the hall is not currently visible in the neighbouring field.

1.    Clouston’s plan following his excavations, detailing the hall to the east of the tower, with Trenches 1 and 2 (after Clouston 1931, Early Norse Castles)

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Geophysical survey in 2020 was used to characterise the buried remains of the hall range and identified additional features in the vicinity (Geophysical survey at The Wirk reveals buried walls of the hall – Castle Studies Trust Blog). Evaluation excavation in two trenches in 2021 targeted the eastern hall range and located substantial wall footings just below the ground surface (part of an ancillary building in Trench 1 and the southern external wall of the hall in Trench 2). Excavations concluded that the tower and hall range were built at the same time (contra some earlier interpretations by Clouston). Clouston just exposed the footings of the hall walls, without fully excavating around them, but his plan of the site was proved to be very accurate. The hall may have had raised wooden internal floors, certainly in the lower western part, perhaps supported by an internal scarcement (although excavations were too limited to be conclusive).

Excavations in Trench 1 exposed the wall footing of the ancillary buildings at the eastern end of the hall (Credit: Dan Lee)
Excavations in Trench 2 exposed the substantial southern wall of the hall (Credit: Dan Lee)

A significant assemblage of c.13th century worked and moulded red sandstone was recovered from Trench 2 nearest the tower. The red sandstone is interpreted as ecclesiastical in origin and likely to have originated from the former medieval kirk nearby, rather than the hall. The Wirk was unlikely to have been an ecclesiastical building due to the raised floors and association with the tower. Radiocarbon dates from material (charred grain) found in deposits abutting the southern external wall of the hall returned Late Iron Age dates (Pictish period mid-7th to mid-8th century AD). This material is most likely derived from the disturbance of earlier activity at the site during the construction of the hall, hinted at by the surrounding geophysical anomalies, rather than dating the hall itself. It was concluded that the tower and hall are contemporary and likely to be 12th century in date, based on architectural style and stratigraphic relationships observed during the excavations.

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Featured image: View of The Wirk during excavations (foreground) looking south to St Mary’ Kirk and Skaill (Credit: Bobby Friel @TakeTheHighView)

Raby Castle 3D Digital Model Nears Completion

As we draw towards the end of the year, Julie Biddlecombe-Brown, Curator at Raby Castle checks in on the 2022 research project funded by the Castle Studies Trust as this chapter draws to a close.  

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What a busy year 2022 has been and yet, this project has been one of the highlights. Working with Durham University Archaeological Services, the castle exterior was fully scanned over the summer and the scans imported into specialist software that enables us to view and fully manipulate the images. The quality of the scanned images are superb and can be used in multiple applications;  as a base model for 3d imaging (shown below) or overlaid with the HD photographic detail to provide a record of every elevation, down to the individual stone, providing inspiration for new visitor-facing interpretation and vital data for the castle architects. The team at Durham University have shared the incredible detail captured on the scans with their counterparts at Raby – demonstrating how the drone was able to access areas that have previously been very difficult to view; testimony to the skill of the drone pilot but also enabling an unrivalled view of the battlements – even into the machicolations.

Alongside the images, Raby Castle has benefitted from the experience and knowledge of Durham’s Senior Archaeologist Richard Annis in reviewing the complex interior of the building against historic plans and research notes compiled by Raby’s dedicated volunteer group. With the scans and historic plans to hand, Richard has explored the building from top-to-toe, focusing on intersections between the medieval fabric and later interventions. This has identified spaces known to the castle team which had not appeared on any of the earlier plans, enabling detailed measurements to be taken as part of the broader survey.  In addition to the overall survey which will be of immense benefit for the quinquennial survey and subsequent building monitoring and maintenance, this project sought to produce a 3d digital model of the castle that could be used to demonstrate different phases of the castle’s history. The team at Durham University Archaeological services have produced a Terra model (below) which will now be separated into phases for the conclusion of the project in December. The castle have engaged audio-visual specialists Heritage Interactive to work with them to produce new interpretation for visitors that will incorporate the models and the research findings.

Image of Raby Castle from 3D Digital Model

Special thanks from the Raby Castle team are owed to the Castle Studies Trust Trustees who visited in October to check on progress. The afternoon spent at Raby was valuable for both the Trust and the Castle, drawing on expertise and debating anomalies in the castle architecture. The discussions will feed into the final report being produced by Durham University Archaeological services alongside the model. We look forward to sharing the end results once the final report and model have been completed.

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The Story Behind the Timber of Old Wick Castle

In five short videos Drs Will Wyeth, Coralie Mills and Hamish Darrah look at the project funded by both the Castle Studies Trust and Historic Environment Scotland to date a timber found at Old Wick Castle, Caithness, and in turn help us understand better this little understood castle.

In the first video Dr Will Wyeth gives the background to the project:

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In the second video Hamish Darrah gives more detail on the wood they found

While in the third one, Coralie Mills looks at how they dated the timber

In video four, Will looks at what the dating of the timber means:

Before summing up in video five about what the significance of the research is.

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Castle of Old Wick: Hot Fire and Cold Murder: Looting and Legitimacy in late medieval Caithness

In the second of two articles on the Castle Studies Trust / Historic Environment Scotland co-funded project to date the timber left in a wall socket at Old Wick, Dr Will Wyeth offers an explanation for the surprising date of the timber.

Past investigations of Castle of Old Wick provide a context for the most recent research on this enigmatic Caithness castle. The archaeological evidence combined with historical details give sharp insight into an episode of violence and destruction at the castle in the life of Christian Sutherland, the Lady of Berriedale.

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Based on some similarities with Cubbie Roo’s Castle in Orkney, Old Wick’s standing fabric – a unornamented stone tower with small windows – has been dated to the 12th century. A survey in 2016 led by Dr Piers Dixon of Historic Environment Scotland (HES) was the first comprehensive assessment of its standing buildings and earthworks since the publication of MacGibbon and Ross’s Castellated and Domestic Architecture in the late 19th century. Dixon’s study queried the consensus of the castle’s high medieval origins, pointing to regional comparators whose documented history sat more comfortably in a date range beginning in the 14th century. My review of archaeological and historical evidence for Castle of Old Wick in 2019 substantiated the conclusions of the 2016 survey.

Ground plan of earthworks and floor plans of stone tower, Castle of Old Wick, from 2016 survey. Copyright HES

Nevertheless, the simple stone towers of Caithness are poorly understood. They are fairly numerous in the county but our understanding of them relies on an unproductive mixture of simplistic architectural study and a reliance on references in historical sources.

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Dr Coralie Mills’ and Hamish Darrah’s research gives scope to uphold Dixon’s assertion, and challenge a 12th century date for Castle of Old Wick. Their analysis of the fragment of alder has given the first substantive dating evidence for the castle with a felling date range of 1515-50 (95% probability).

Interior of the tower at Old Wick copyright HES

The slot in which the timber was recovered, located on an internal wall face within the tower, was argued by Dixon to be part of a hanging lum. This is a form of fireplace common to buildings of middling and high status in late medieval Britain, also helpful for dating the construction of the tower at Old Wick. A hanging lum is a fireplace whose hearth and flue are built against, not within, a wall.

Mills and Darrah suggest that the alder was a replacement for an earlier timber used for the same purpose, i.e. to support a hanging lum, therefore, the felling date corresponds with a period of repair, restoration or improvement of the interiors of Castle of Old Wick in the early 16th century.

Looting and legitimacy

The historical context is one where violence both within and between kin groups is a feature of elite society in late medieval Britain. Typically, these disputes centred on rights of succession to property and titles. Those held by women were the most precarious. In 1517 two parties from the extended Sutherland of Duffus family met to settle a violent succession dispute at Drumminor Castle in Aberdeenshire. William Sutherland of Duffus agreed to an arbitration on the matter of assisthment (compensation for loss) and kynbut (compensation for manslaughter) with Christian Sutherland (the Lady of Berriedale) and her son and heir, Andrew Oliphant. William and his accomplices were held responsible for the murder of Christian’s elder son Charles. Duffus was also accused of seizing and looting two of her properties: Berriedale Castle and Castle of Old Wick.

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The family dispute which led to the murder of Charles Sutherland originated in the legitimacy of Christian’s inheritance of several estates on the death of her father, Alexander Sutherland (d. 1451×1471), including those in Caithness but also Duffus and elsewhere. William Sutherland’s father, also William Sutherland of the fittingly named Quarrelwood, contended that Christian was illegitimate. The court of the Bishop of Aberdeen had found in favour of Christian in 1494, but two years later Quarrelwood violently seized Castle of Old Wick. This was very likely not the same occupation mentioned in the 1517 document. Still unsatisfied, Quarrelwood pursued his case in the court in Rome for several years, until a settlement of sorts around 1507, when Christian surrendered her father’s Duffus lands.

Drumminor Castle, where in 1517 Christian Sutherland agreed to arbitration to settlement with her kinsman, William Sutherland of Duffus (copyright HES)

We don’t know exactly why she reached this settlement but it may be telling that her husband’s kin, the Oliphants, had spent substantial sums (not entirely selflessly) on supporting her legal case and accommodating Christian and her children during the difficult years of legal wrangling. We also can’t be sure if the 1517 document references this settlement, or another outburst of violence.

It is tempting to connect the episode of refurbishment at Castle of Old Wick implied by the radiocarbon dating and the documented evidence of looting at the castle which took place before the  1517 settlement, with the implication of subsequent repairs implied by that settlement. I think this is the best conclusion, but others are possible. Between 1515-50 the castle was held by at least seven different parties, but evidence suggests that they were either in financial difficulty or held the castle to generate money from its lands, not as a family seat. Only when the senior branch of the Oliphants take over after 1548 is there a compelling reason to think that the castle was systematically renovated: this is the best alternative scenario to that suggested above.

Archaeologists’ efforts over the last six years have drastically altered our understanding of the Castle of Old Wick. But they have also shed light on the story of Christian Sutherland and violence and upheaval occasioned by her kinsman’s legal contestation. This research demonstrates the value of revisiting the smaller castles of the world, for the potential to challenge an existing consensus as well as shed light on lesser-told stories from the medieval past. 

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To read the first blog by Dr Coralie Mills and Hamish Darrah click here:

 

Castle Studies: Present and Future

A symposium to celebrate ten years of the Castle Studies Trust

Saturday, 10 June 2023, University of Winchester

CALL FOR PAPERS

The Castle Studies Trust was founded in 2012 to advance the study of and research into the history and archaeology of castles for public benefit. Over the last ten years the Trust has funded ground-breaking research into castles in the UK, Ireland and further afield.

In celebration of this, the Trust is organising the symposium Castle Studies: Present and Futures and seeking proposals for 20-minute research papers. We welcome submissions on any topic exploring castle studies, particularly encouraging papers from projects which link to current and future areas of castle studies. Themes to consider might be (but are not limited to):

  • Castles and the Environment
  • Gendering Castles
  • The Decolonised Castle
  • Challenging Orthodoxy
  • Theory in Action

Please send a 250 word abstract of your paper to Dr Katherine Weikert (Katherine.Weikert@winchester.ac.uk) and Dr Catriona Cooper (Catriona.Cooper@canterbury.ac.uk) by 16 January 2023. We particularly encourage scholars from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds to submit abstracts.

The seminar will also feature poster presentations for early career research and ongoing projects. Proposals for posters should be submitted as above.

The CST relies entirely on public donations to fund our grants; we aim to support attendance and travel for early career, unemployed and under-waged scholars who are giving papers, but hope it is appreciated this will be limited in scope.

For more information about the Castle Studies Trust and its activities visit the Trust website at www.castlestudiestrust.org

So, what did happen at Caerlaverock?

Lead research on the Weathering Extremes: Medieval Climate Change at Caerlaverock Castle Dr Richard Tipping outlines what he and the team of researchers found during their research.

After an engrossing year of field and laboratory analyses, the team of researchers from the Universities of Stirling, St Andrews and Coventry, along with Morvern French and Stefan Sagrott of Historic Environment Scotland, try to summarise what happened at Caerlaverock Castle, on the Scottish Solway coast, some 600 years ago.

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The new castle, top left, and the old castle, bottom right © RCAHMS

When it was built in AD1229-30, the older of the castles at Caerlaverock stood close to the coast. Salt marshes probably extended south, worked by salt-panners. But the Solway had been far from tranquil. On the coast, preserved intact for around 1,400 years, was a series of huge, 200m long, 20m wide sand and gravel ridges: barrier beaches created by extreme storm surges. They started to form around 200BC, in the late Iron Age, and probably continued into the 1st millennium AD. There were at least four (we don’t know if each was a single storm) that added 200m to the coast.

The builders of the old castle may not have given these much thought. But around AD1200, we think, extreme storm surges recurred, initially with an enormous event that ripped apart the earlier barrier beaches, eroded archaeological structures and impacted the coastal cliffs: we wrote about this event in our third blog . This had minimum wave heights >4.5m above highest ordinary tides. And these waves were not like those surfers play on; these were like tsunami, swelling and not breaking.

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We think the builders of the old castle added what has been called a harbour on the coast: our fourth blog described us coring its sediments. These went back 6,000 years, formed when the so-called harbour was a tidal creek, and they probably record the storm surges of the 1st millennium AD. The creek was widened and maybe deepened around AD1200, but even so, waves at the highest ordinary tides could not have flooded the harbour: the harbour wasn’t a harbour. But it was the only way freshwater in the moat system could drain to the sea. It was also, of course, the quickest route for storm surges, increasing in frequency if not scale, to force their way inland. But they didn’t. The sediments in the ‘harbour’ from around AD1200 record still-water, low-energy deposition. We have to think that somehow the ‘harbour’ entrance was blocked off by people increasingly scared of the changing climate – not that they understood what was happening


Much of this reconstruction, made in 2004, is now incorrect, but if you ignore the ship, this image shows the relation of the ‘harbour’ to the old castle © Crown Copyright HES

Our first two blogs  described the patient work of understanding sediments trapped in the moat system. Several different types of analysis converge to show that the moat system, inland of the ‘harbour’, was impacted by storm surges, at least twice in the 14th century. How come, when the harbour was blocked? We think the surges skirted round the ‘harbour’, pushing over low cliffs and across parkland to pour into the moat surrounding the old castle. We may not, of course, have recorded the earliest surges, only those after the moat system was dug. We still don’t know whether the storm surges caused the old castle to be abandoned. We think the wave energies were insufficient to undermine the structure. But wave heights will also have rattled the occupants, and we don’t know how big these were: we’ll keep on searching. The salt-panners, by the way, are not recorded after AD1304.

But around AD1277, the old Castle was abandoned and a new one built 200m inland. The final storm surge to impact the long-abandoned old castle was around AD1570, by which time a further six huge barrier beaches had been stacked up. But because its moat had to be filled from the same spring-line that fed the old castle, the new castle could not be located any higher than 7m above contemporary ordinary tides. This, we speculate, created a painful dilemma because this may not have been high enough to escape these medieval and later surges.


This project has demonstrated how our understanding of castles’ construction and landscape can change significantly as new techniques are employed. Also, medieval people were conscious of the effects of extreme natural weather events: a critical topic for the 21st century.

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Historic Environment Scotland is grateful for funding received from the Castle Studies Trust, and for research done by Dr Richard Tipping, Dr Eileen Tisdall, Dr Tim Kinnaird, Dr Aayush Srivastava, Dr Jason Jordan, Busie Gisanrin, Neil McDonald, Carla Ferreira, and the Scottish Universities Environmental Research Centre.

In turn, Richard and Eileen would like to thank Historic Environment Scotland, and particularly Morvern French and Stefan Sagrott, for support and assistance in every aspect of the work, and the Trustees of the Castle Studies Trust for their generous financial support and interest. Stefan Sagrott’s LiDAR imagery of Castle Wood was the catalyst to this work. The Caerlaverock Estate provided access to Castle Wood. Grateful thanks for help with fieldwork go to Valerie Bennett, Finn Thompson, Kath Usher, Richard and Laura Bates, Tim Kinnaird, Aayush Srivastava, Morvern French and Steve Farrar. Lisa Brown (HES) facilitated the 14C dating programme and the re-assessment of archaeomagnetic dating at the old castle. The staff at the SUERC 14C Laboratory, University of Glasgow) are thanked for the provision of 14C assays. Carla Ferreira is thanked for assistance with BACON software. Tim Kinnaird and Aayush Srivastava (University of St Andrews) provided more than just OSL age estimates. Jason Jordan (University of Coventry) supervised the diatom analyses in the western moat undertaken by Busie Gisanrin. Neil McDonald undertook particle size analyses from the western moat and the outer ditch. Steve Farrar (then at HES) and Andrew Burnett enthused over the interpretations.