Excavations at Linlithgow palace, West Lothian, 1966-7

Abstract

NT 774002. Rescue excavations failed to determine the nature and position of Edward I's peel, but produced a good sequence of stratified 13th-17th cent pottery. Previous finds indicate some 2nd cent Roman occupation of the site. The earliest medieval occupation consisted of a 12th cent stone church and a royal manor house, which was repaired or rebuilt and defended by Edward I for his 1301-2 campaigns; a surviving indenture shows that an encircling ditch and peel was to incorporate the church as part of the defences, with a second (lesser) ditch and peel round the promontory. Timber was to be used for the most part, but the accounts suggest some stonework in the main defences. After 1314 the peel probably fell into decay and was subject to robbing. On the same lines in 1650-51 Cromwell built a stone wall, dismantled in 1663. Appended is an interim report on current problems of Scottish medieval pottery, discussing the Northern cooking pot and mapping "Leuchars" ware (12th-late 13th cents).