Tarradale Through Time Blog
Tarradale Excavations 2024: A Post-Medieval Wall and an Elusive Distillery
by Eric Grant and James McComas - 11:27 on 15 July 2024
In early May 2024 we undertook some limited excavation at Tarradale to see if we could identify a distillery site shown on the 1788 Estate map (extract below). The mechanical digger uncovered a mass of stone at our chosen location which looked initially promising. Unfortunately, several further days of excavation by hand revealed this only to be a pit infilled with rubble. Our best guess is now that this was a site of 19th century sand or gravel extraction which had then been filled with building demolition rubble.
Fortunately, some metres to the north, another trench we opened on the same weekend revealed more positive results. Here, we quickly identified two courses of a substantial stone wall, with inner and outer faces and a rubble core. A subsequent weekend of further excavation in June revealed more of the structure, although no return. We believe it is most likely part of a farm building, also shown on the 1788 map (ringed in red). It probably dates to the 17th or 18th century. You can read below about the finds we have discovered so far.
Eric has washed and sorted the finds we have recovered so far. He writes, "the first photograph shows metal remains from bonfires made by the University of Aberdeen when it took over Tarradale House in the late 1950s. The house was certainly in a poor state then, but I think the University went somewhat overboard and destroyed everything they didn’t think they needed. Student work parties (including me in the 1960s) could be a bit enthusiastic and not very particular which is probably how a chisel and a paint roller became mixed up in the rubbish for burning. I found masses of stuff like that when I dug over the walled garden. I’ve decided not to retain this university era burnt rubbish. The items are:
On the left-hand side is a section of cast-iron water pipe and immediate right of that at the top is a hinge plate and under that the remains of a chisel. Immediately to the upper right is the frame of a paint roller and under that are bed springs which are the survivors of burnt interior spring mattresses. The items in the right and bottom right are pieces of electrical wiring. This is interesting as the house did not have electricity until around 1960. This is flexible wiring (flex), probably from an old reading lamp brought to the house when electricity was installed.
The 2nd photograph is of finds that probably relate more closely chronologically to the construction or at least demolition of the wall itself.
The main assemblage is of green bottle glass from wine bottles. There are at least 3 bottles as there are 3 neck pieces. The neck pieces are useful in dating these bottles. From about 1820 wine bottles were made in moulds and the necks were quite different having a much deeper neck band. The bottles illustrated here have a projecting flange at the neck that was added on after the bottle was made and which retained a piece of string that went over the cork as the corks were not fully driven into the bottle at that date. We can reasonably confidently date these bottlenecks as pre-1820.
On the right-hand side the picture the top pieces are the remains of a crystal goblet while immediately under that several pieces of creamware pottery. Creamware dates to the 2nd half of the 18th century through to about 1820 when whitewares were successfully produced, though creamware was still manufactured after that if only because people wanted them to add to existing dinner services et cetera. We found very similar creamware fragments when fieldwalking around Tarradale and I suspect this is a piece from a dinner service that was in Tarradale House for a long time when it was owned by the Murchison and then the Baillie families. The creamware sherds are from a large soup dish with a scalloped rim.
Below the creamware is a piece of brown stoneware on the left and to the right a triangular piece of white stoneware. At the bottom are 4 pieces of terracotta drainage tile. Apart from the drainage tile, the glass and ceramics are all indicative of rubbish being dumped in the garden. This is probably domestic waste from the kitchen where sweepings would be added to the ashes of the fire (we found lots of pieces of coal) and then perhaps unofficially dumped in the grounds of the house."
We will continue with excavation from Weds 24th to Sunday 28th July. All are welcome to volunteer, contact James if you are interested in attending. Please advise which days you can come and whether you are happy to dig, or would prefer other tasks.
Above: 3D Model of the wall as of May 24 (zoom out to see the full thing) and image of same wall as excavated in June 24, courtesy of David Newman. Below: the original "distillery" trench. Drone view by Chris Firth-Bernard.
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