In Pictures: Dirty Weekend at Glengarnock Castle

What happens when you join archaeologists for a ‘Dirty Weekend’ at a medieval castle in Scotland?

Glengarnock Castle sits perched on the edge of a ravine near Glasgow. Now, a ruinous ancient landmark, the castle is tied to a 120-year feud between two of North Ayrshire’s most important medieval families – the Cunninghames and the Montgomeries. Their feud brought turmoil to the region, only ending when the fourth Earl of Eglinton was murdered in 1586. It was allegedly visited by Mary Queen of Scots in 1536, and was largely destroyed when a huge storm struck in 1863, leaving only part of the Keep and courtyard standing.

Whilst much of the castle appears to have been added or built during the turmoil, there are big questions about its true origins. There is suggests the castle could be far older and much more extensive than it initially appears. Was there something here beforehand? What was its original layout? And is there enough evidence that a full-scale excavation could finally reveal the answers? That’s what we’re here to find out.

Joined by a team of archaeology-fans from all over Scotland, we had one weekend to excavate a series of mini-trenches to unearth as many clues as we could. If the results were positive, then it would provide grounds to return for a bigger, more extensive excavation, next summer.

So, armed with as much desk-based research as we could do, it was time for our Dirty Weekenders to start digging, and find out  how old and truly extensive Glengarnock Castle’s ruins really are. And in true Scottish spirit, they got stuck straight in…

Perched on the edge of a rocky ravine, the ruins of Glengarnock Castle are truly impressive…

But our Dirty Weekenders weren’t here to stand around admiring them, they were keen to start digging.

First, we had to remove the turf, like peeling an orange, to see what’s inside…We had 3 test pits, which our Dirty Weekenders began digging out with shovels and mattocks. Claire and David started trowelling and very quickly began to unveil evidence of a possible wall.Meanwhile, Harriet lead a ‘how to make short films about heritage’ workshop. Ruth tried out her video capturing skills straight away!By lunchtime, two of our test pits were starting to show evidence of further buildings.After a quick spot of lunch, our dirty weekenders were right back at it!Over at the castle, we gathered round as Claire and Louise from Rathmell Archaeology shared their landscape and building surveying expertise.The group sketched sections of the castle, observing its exposed surfaces, materials and building techniques to help place the ruins within a historical context.Afterwards, Kim shared her geophysics expertise, demoing how-to search for subsurface archaeological features.Meanwhile, Dan, Evo and Anne began uncovering a larger wall structure having only found modern glass and a bottle cap in the morning!  Our find trays started to fill up, with some iron nails, a piece of leather and a few sherds of pottery. Which only motivated our Dirty Weekenders to find more! So, the trowelling continued with Manda leading the way… And soon enough, Colin found a musket ball! Could it have been fired during the infamous feud? Or perhaps even during the civil war?  All in all, our Dirty Weekenders did an incredible job!  They learnt a whole range of new archaeological skills…And unveiled possible evidence of additional buildings beyond the castle’s ruins. But most importantly, we all had a sterling weekend… and found enough evidence to suggest that it’s worth coming back for a bigger, more extensive excavation, next summer!