Geophyical Survey: Bamburgh Castle Environs

Posted on April 21, 2024 by bamburghresearchproject

In early 2023 the BRP was awarded funding from the Castle Studies Trust to undertake a series of non-invasive surveys to provide additional context to the outworks of Bamburgh Castle, focussing on St Oswald’s Gate and the Tower of Elmund’s Well. You can find out more about this area in our earlier blog posts (here’s a good place to start: Director’s End of Season Excavation Round-up).

We are now finalising the associated reports and sharing these ahead of releasing our interim excavation report. The next report we are sharing details a geophysical survey that we undertook with Dr Kristian Strutt of the Archaeological Prospection Services Southampton University exploring the environs of Bamburgh Castle.

Person stood on large grassy area in front of large castle situated on rock promontory. Man is holding a white twin probe device with computer attached in middle

Dominic Barker using the Bartington Grad 601-2 instrument on the Cricket Ground (photo: K. Strutt)

The Geophysical Survey Results

The survey utilised magnetometry, resistivity and Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR) survey of areas of the Cricket Ground to the west of Bamburgh Castle. The results indicate the possible presence of a large ditch, some 45m across, immediately to the west of the outcrop, in addition to trackways, walls and other features in the survey area.

One of the principal questions we were hoping to address with the geophysics was if the castle ditch extended across the sports field at the base of the castle rock. A ditch cut through sandstone, can been traced in the area of the modern entrance that is at the site of the 12^th century gate. This feature extends across the front of the castle as far as the sandstone ridge was present above ground. The results of the GPR do seem to strongly indicate a large feature in the area where we would anticipate the castle ditch to be and the magnetometry and resistance surveys do seem to support this. It is intended to conduct further fieldwork, starting with coring, to confirm this.

Three people stood on large grassy area in front of large castle situated on rock promontory. Person is holding a white twin probe device with computer attached in middle with wires hanging down

Earth resistance survey being carried out by BRP volunteers (photo: K. Strutt)

In addition, to the probable ditch feature, several features seen on the 1^st Edition Ordnance Survey appear to be picked up on the surveys. Two trackways are evident, that lead to St Oswald’s Gate and to a cleft in the castle rock called the ‘Miller’s Nick’, which allowed people to scramble up to the West Ward in the 19^th century. The second is an S-shaped path that meandered towards the area of St Oswald’s Gate, perhaps originally skirting around the edge of the ditch feature. One further route-way or path extends across the field parallel to the road in the village to the south, called the Wynding, that appears from records to have had a medieval origin. This path runs alongside a linear plot boundary and field boundaries and it will be interesting to see if more can be made from a number of anomalies that can be seen within the enclosure areas to the south and west of the plot.

The resistivity and ground penetrating radar surveys so far cover a more limited area, due to time constraints and public access. There is an area of low resistance that lies in just the area that the ditch would lie and matches up to the path towards the Miller’s Nick. The enclosure areas picked up in the magnetometry to the south-west also seems to be present on the resistivity. Notably, there is a high resistance feature that the S-shaped pathway may curve deliberately to avoid at the south part of the plot. A further T-shaped high resistance feature is present in the north-east extending from the area of the modern pavilion that will bear further study. The GPR further reinforces the presence of some of these features and indicates some depth to the anomaly that is interpreted as the ditch, though the signal attenuates before it could indicate a true depth.

Aerial image of the castle and surrounding landscape with overlays of each survey depicting where features have been found. Map key to the right.

Interpretation plot of all three surveys, labels link to the report text (Airbus 11/05/23)

Download the Full Report

If you want to take a deeper dive into the results of the geophysical survey you can download the report here: Report on the Geophysical Survey at Bamburgh, Northumberland, July 2023

It provides more information about the background to the site, detail about each survey technique and a breakdown, with useful maps and figures, about what was discovered.

In our forthcoming interim report we use this information to enhance our understanding of the castle within its landscape context and explore in more detail what some of the features identified in the survey might be.

The geophysical survey described in this blog has been funded by the Castle Studies Trust.

This charity is entirely reliant on donations from the public. To help the Trust to continue funding this kind of research, please visit https://www.castlestudiestrust.org/Donate

To find out more about the Trust please visit www.castlestudiestrust.org

Post-Excavation Taster Weeks -Booking Now Open

Posted on March 31, 2024 by bamburghresearchproject

Dates: May 20th to 24th and September 9th to 13th

What is post-excavation?

Archaeology is not all about digging. In order to turn the data gathered through excavations or surveys (for example) into information that can be used to interpret a site and/or plan further investigations, archaeologists must process this data during the ‘post-ex’ phase.

This includes recording the artefacts recovered, processing the environmental samples taken, digitising the drawings and survey information, for example. This work generates a physical and digital archive, which connects all the pieces of information together. It takes far longer (in most cases) than the actual field work and often takes place in the lab or at the desk.

Post-Ex at the Bamburgh Research Project

Here at the BRP we have generated a lot of post-excavation work in the last 20 years. We undertake much of the initial post-ex on site, where we wash and process the small and bulk finds, we process our environmental samples and we catalogue much of the records and photographs we take. However, there is still much work that is undertaken during the off-season by our staff and more that is sent away for specialist analysis. We thought this year we might bring some of this ‘behind the scenes’ work back to the Castle and share it with a small cohort of interested individuals.

What is the Post-Excavation Taster Week?

We offer quality training in archaeology with an emphasis on practical hands-on experience. The post-excavation taster week will use the BRP’s extensive archive, which consists of material from the prehistoric to the medieval periods, as the basis for an introduction to the different post-excavation techniques and research methodologies employed by the project.

We are still planning the daily schedule but the week will include:

a general introduction to finds processing (bulk and small finds)
hands-on training to record, draw and photograph artefacts from the site
live demo and handling session with a medieval textile specialist
introduction to environmental sampling and processing
guided tour of Bamburgh Castle, related Anglo-Saxon burial ground and the new ossuary and Bamburgh Bones exhibition
learn the process of creating pottery from clay to shaping to firing from a specialist

Please Note: we are also in the process of organising tuition by an osteoarchaeologist for September TBC.

Who is it for?

Our training is open to people of all skill-levels and abilities, with particular interests accommodated where possible. We particularly wish to offer a fun and educational experience to beginners and non professionals.

Please get in touch with us if you have any questions about access, facilities, etc.

BRP is open to anyone aged 18 and over.

Who will be teaching me?

Professional field archaeologists and post-excavation specialists.

How much does it cost?

The post-excavation taster week costs £350 pp and covers 5 days of training in a small group of between 6-8 people. This covers the cost of the tuition, tours and the trip to Lindisfarne.

How do I book a place?

Please visit the BRP’s website and take a look at the Post-Ex Taster Week page. At the end of the page is the details on how to book and pay for your place.

PLEASE NOTE: the week will only run if the BRP receive enough bookings to make the week viable (more info on website).

Any questions? Email: graemeyoung@bamburghresearchproject.co.uk

Photogrammetry Survey of Bamburgh Castle’s Medieval Outworks: St Oswald’s Gate and the Tower of Elmund’s Well.

Posted on February 18, 2024 by bamburghresearchproject

In early 2023 the BRP was awarded funding from the Castle Studies Trust to undertake a series of non-invasive surveys to provide additional context to the outworks of Bamburgh Castle, focussing on St Oswald’s Gate and the Tower of Elmund’s Well. You can find out more about these in our earlier blog posts (here’s a good place to start: Director’s End of Season Excavation Round-up).

We are now in the process of finalising the associated reports and outputs and will be sharing these over the next few weeks ahead of releasing our interim excavation report. One of the surveys we undertook was a preliminary assessment of the standing masonry elements in the outworks, which will sit alongside the excavated archaeological report. To support this we also commissioned several photogrammetry surveys to create 3D models of the standing outworks and internal structures of the Tower of Elmund’s Well.

We are really excited to be able to share these with you now. Below, you can click each photo to take you to the online model, which will allow you to explore each area in detail.

3D Models of Bamburgh Castle’s Northern Outworks 2023

3D Model of Crosswall with St Oswald’s Gate

Bamburgh RP 2023: Crosswall with early form arch by Tony Liddell on Sketchfab

St Oswald’s Gate is written about as the entrance to the fortress of Bamburgh in the 8th century AD (Symeon HK, III. pg 37) and was very likely the route up onto the rock plateau since the earliest settlements. The present phase of work is investigating the entrance, the access routes up to the entrance and the structures and outworks built to control this route over many generations.

3D Model of The Tower of Elmund’s Well

Bamburgh RP 2023: Well Room by Tony Liddell on Sketchfab

One particular area of focus was the recovery of the site of the Tower of Elmund’s Well, named in records from the 13th century (Colvin, H. M. pg 556) and onto which a cottage was constructed in the late 18th century.

The outline of the cottage/tower structure was quickly revealed during the first phase of investigation by the removal of foliage and a modest volume of aeolian sand. One of the first exciting discoveries during 2022 excavation was the presence of two splayed lights (open window-like features) in two of the walls. The discovery of the top of a stone archway that formed the entrance to the well-room confirms both the depth of the basement, there must after all be depth to pass under the arch, but also suggest that the floor level cannot be too much deeper.

3D Model of the Postern Gate Trench 5D

Bamburgh RP 2023: Postern gate, Trench 5D by Tony Liddell on Sketchfab

The postern gate lies beyond St Oswald’s Gate and leads out to Bamburgh Village. The structure as uncovered was a single well-constructed feature of coursed squared masonry that ended abruptly and deliberately short of the rock. A further constructed face abutted the bedrock and the gap between the two faces a little more than 1m side formed what surely must have been a second gate.

3D Model of Trench 5E with possible foundation wall

Bamburgh RP 2023: Trench 5E by Tony Liddell on Sketchfab

Trench 5E was a new trench opened in 2023, sited outside of the wall with the postern gate and the outworks. It was placed next to a short length of wall that we investigated in 2022 to see if it had once extended further. It has revealed a stone alignment that extends parallel to the two standing walls. Those of the outworks and the short wall length. So far only the upper level has been uncovered, so it is possible that it could be either a wall top or a foundation or the surface of a narrow path.

We think being able to share these 3D models, alongside the traditional interim report, really helps others who have not been to site to visualise the structures and our progress to date.

Please check back soon to take a look at the preliminary masonry report that will add further detail to the 3D models above.

Excavation Season 2024: Booking is open!

Posted on January 8, 2024 by bamburghresearchproject

30th June – 26th July 2024 (4 weeks)

Join us this summer for our 2024 excavation season at the world famous Bamburgh Castle.

We will be continuing our excavation and survey on and around the outworks at St Oswald’s Gate; the latest chapter in our investigations of this fabulous multiphase site whose history spans at least 3000 years. The dig will run for four weeks from the end of June to late July 2024, starting Sunday 30th June.

You can find out more about our field school by visiting our Archaeology Field School 2024 page on our website.

If you are ready to book a place please head straight to our Booking Details page.

We also aim to offer two separate post-excavation focussed weeks this year as well. Keep an eye out for more details on what these will involve soon.

*Excavation at the outworks beyond St Oswald’s Gate.*

Where will we be working this season?

We have had three really good seasons on this site already and made some fascinating discoveries – such as the surviving stone arch into what must be the well-room at the base of the Tower of Elmund’s Well. This year we aim to finally find the base of the tower and the well itself. In addition we will begin to survey the mounds to the landward side of the outworks that may be a siege castle dating back to 1095 AD. It promises to be a very exciting season!

If you want to read up on the history of this area of the castle, how it relates to the other areas of excavation, and what we have discovered to date, take a look at our Bamburgh Castle: St Oswald’s Gate website page and look back on the blog entries here from previous seasons.

*The Tower of Elmund’s Well under excavation*

We welcome people from all ages and backgrounds

We are lucky to be able to welcome to the dig people of all ages and backgrounds, not just students of archaeology, and we feel that this makes for a friendly and welcoming team and a fun experience.

If anyone is interested but worries that mobility or other issues might be problematic then do get in touch with us via the Contact us page on the website and we will do as much as we can to accommodate you.

Director’s End of Season Excavation Round-up

Posted on November 1, 2023 by bamburghresearchproject

The focus of our work over the last three seasons has been the investigation of the outworks beyond St Oswald’s Gate and in particular the Tower of Elmund’s Well and our ongoing search to find what remains of the well within it. You can read our previous seasons excavation to round-up to here to see where we started at the beginning of this year’s dig season.

Tower of Elmund’s Well

We have been surprised, delighted and even a bit astonished just how much of the tower survives even if this discovery has involved moving a lot of rubble! The stairs down into the tower, by the end of the season, had passed through the archway and into the tower room itself. This would suggest that although we have yet to reach the floor there is less and less space for many further steps before we will reach the far wall so we feel that the floor is probably no more than 1 metre deeper, and hopefully somewhat less.

This season, with the fence that surrounds the outworks moved back a little to allow for more space, we were able to start a trench outside of the turret to the seaward side to expose the outside of the wall face.

*The tower wall before the seaward side was exposed.*

This was to give us a proper understanding of the width of the wall, the top of which had been altered substantially it seemed when the tower was converted into a cottage. Here, less than a metre down, we found that the wall survives wider than it appears at the top, where some facing stones had been removed. As we excavate deeper (next season) it is hoped to identify buried ground surfaces, now covered by the windblown dunes, and perhaps even the ground surface contemporary with the tower’s construction.

One of the more interesting finds from within the backfill within the tower was a well constructed metal bucket. It is of course tempting to see this as associated with the well – perhaps the last well bucket that was in use! Of course there is every likelihood that it was just another item disposed of in the backfill, along with a car wheel and other household items, but we can still hope to identify some of the machinery needed to work the well abandoned at floor level.

Postern Gate and Wall

This season also saw further work on the external postern gate that leads out to the village. This involved continuing the excavation immediately behind it to uncover more of the structure. The intent for this was to uncover more of the wall to help interpret it, perhaps recover some datable finds, and if fortunate, see if we could find the level from which it was constructed. We had certainly not at all expected to discover what we actually found which was a gap in the wall that was deliberate. The gap was not there because the wall had been robbed away as it had deliberately constructed faces. The width and form of this strongly suggested a second narrow gate.

*The gap in the postern wall that must be a second and perhaps earlier postern gate*

The outside face that looks out to the village had been blocked by a single layer of masonry to close off the gap. It was also evident that it was quite high up (on the outside) as it bottomed onto a spur of the bedrock. This means the gate was at ground level on the inside but was a couple of metres above it on the outside. There is no trace of a stair up to it, so it seems likely that there would have been a wooden stair, which perhaps would have made it a little more defensible as it could be discarded in the face of an enemy.

It does not seem to make sense that there would be two posterns next to each other so its tempting to see one as replacing the other. As the current path leads to the one that is still, in its way in use, its natural to assume that this is the later one, but this may be false as we simply cannot be sure the positions of the path in early times.

Trench 5e the new feature that is something of a flashback to T3

This season we opened a new trench on the outside of the wall with the postern gate (now two gates). The new trench was next to the short length of wall that we investigated last season to see if it had once extended further. Rather disappointingly we found that it confusingly just ended rather abruptly with no trace of foundations extending further, or even of a robber cut where once could have been removed. The new trench was opened between that wall and the postern wall and thankfully has proved to be much more interesting.

It has revealed a stone alignment that extends parallel to the two standing walls. So far only the upper level has been uncovered, so it is possible that it could be a wall top (or foundation) or just a surface like a path. It is made of dolerite and sandstone and in this, along with its width and general form, it is very reminiscent of some of the early medieval features the we saw within Trench 3 (within the castle). Here these features had been interpreted as stone foundations for timber walls. It is then very intriguing to wonder if we are seeing the same kind of feature here in the outworks, and even more interesting should the feature prove to be of similar date. One of the questions we asked ourselves at the beginning of the work on the outworks was – could we find any evidence for structures and arrangements from the early medieval period? After all we know the entrance was in use from this time and likely centuries earlier, so there must have been access routes and perhaps structures associated with this use and also control of the small port.

*The new linear structure between the two standing walls that could perhaps be a wall base, with a possible ground surface to the left in the photo*.

Geophysics

We were very fortunate to have a geophysical team from Southampton University with us for a few days in our final week. This was a part of the work on understanding and recording the outworks at St Oswald’s Gate that has been generously funded by the Castle Studies Trust. We will report in much greater detail on this and on the 3D recording and building survey in future blogs, as the results are worked through. As of now we have seen just enough information from the geophysics undertaken on the green in front of the castle to know there will be lots to discuss, including what at first sight may be some early features on the far side of the green. Not bad when we really only hoped to find trace of a ditch extending towards Oswald’s Gate and the port area.

Week 3 Round-up (finally)

Posted on August 10, 2023 by bamburghresearchproject

The last week of the season was a whirlwind! We had multiple specialists on site as well as representatives from various heritage and environmental institutional bodies, and we had to make sure everything was recorded and packed away for the off-season.

In finds, Margot’s team repacked artefacts taken out for student and visiting scholar research, ensuring they were still in superb condition (monitoring humidity strips and changing silica gel specifically) and not showing any signs of degradation. The probable gaming piece below left was used as an example for pitching a new exhibit of currently-off-display finds to the castle team. The finds bags in the middle were a few examples of melon beads selected from a large quantity we pulled for our student Helena to examine for her independent glass bead research. On the right, you can see our massive collection of single stycas…this doesn’t even include the hoard! A coin expert joined us one afternoon, so we moved the solo stycas temporarily into a context tray so they could flip through them easily in context order.

A hand holds a glass tile with a raised purple X and beads of bluish-green glass dolloped between the arms of the X.

Small finds bags with three decorative blue beads, one per bag.

The students working with environmental sorted through a number of backlogged samples that had been floated, inventoried the storage areas, and moved all recent sorted samples into new boxes. We’ve created a new box system for environmental material, as it is usually one of the first categories of materials to get moved around by castle staff in their regular custodial and care-taking duties. New filing systems don’t sound super interesting when we put it like that, but it’s vital to meticulously manage and track our environmental archive. It also means new spreadsheets are afoot! We pulled all the newly-dried flots that fit the parameters of Alice Wolff’s archaeobotanical PhD studies, which we discussed here and here. And lastly cleaned the flot tank out one final time!

Multiple hands rest near a wooden-edged sieve, preparing to sort through a mass of light pinkish grey gravel. A pair of hands rests a wooden tray with sorted piles of artefacts including animal bone, mortar, charcoal, and slag. — Sorting a floated sample in the 4mm sieve.

A woman in a BRP t-shirt carries buckets of silt away across the West Ward grass. A blue sky with linear clouds is behind her. Her hands are covered in mud up to her wrists, but she's smiling. — Sorting a floated sample in the 4mm sieve.

Out on the green at the base of the castle, our colleagues Kris Strutt and Dom Barker from Southampton continued to teach our students to gather data via resistivity, magnetometry, and GPR. Kris also popped into the Inner Ward to see if he could record any usable data in the highly-disturbed area at the top of the mount, while Dom explored one of the fields adjacent to our medieval harbour. We have preliminary readouts of the surveys, but our analysis is not quite complete. When Kris and Dom finish their current assignment (and have a few days to rest from all that walking), we will reconnect with them, better articulate what we were seeing, and ideally identify the various anomalies.

A man smiles and holds an H-shaped rig with grass and cloudy skies behind him. — Dom demonstrates how to use the magnetometer.

Two women walk across the green along a surveyor's tape laughing holding a resistivity array. — Dom demonstrates how to use the magnetometer.

We also welcomed two guest specialists to our open trenches! Peter Ryder, a medieval buildings expert, spent the day poking and pondering about the multiple phases of masonry we have in the outworks. We hope to have an update on his findings in the near future. Tony Liddell, a photogrammetry expert, joined us to take high-resolution, overlapping photos of our trenches to create 3D models. Both of these consultations were made possible due to our funding support from Castle Studies Trust.

A man in a red fleece and multi-coloured hat sits above the masonry of the tower in the outworks. A man in a navy blue vest speaks to him while leaning on a stadia rod. — Peter Ryder (L) and Tony Liddell (R) talking over what they see in the tower masonry.

A man in a navy blue vest stands on a rock in the middle of a trench that overlooks the green taking a photograph with a professional camera. To the left is ivy and a blocked entranceway, to the right masonry disappearing into more foliage. — Tony Liddell stands in Trench 5D to take photos and will produce a 3D photogrammetric model.

Finally in the trenches, we extended 5D, 5E, and 5F before recording them and closing them. Our blocked entranceway (5D) was extended towards the Victorian stairs to what we had been calling the postern gate. We uncovered rubble under the foliage and then a gentle slope of earth. 5E, between the two medieval walls, revealed more pavement of flagstones and cobbles. Trench 5F, for some reason referred to as “Betty” by the students, gave us access to more of the façade of the tower but we only brought it down to the top of the windblown sand layer first seen in last week’s round-up.

A woman with short blonde hair trowels an area of rubble near weed-covered masonry. — Elizabeth extends the trench near the blocked entranceway, with the Victorian postern in the background.

A rock wall partially covered in ivy and the masonry abutting it is in the background. A line of large rubble crosses from left to right in this view of the trench. — Elizabeth extends the trench near the blocked entranceway, with the Victorian postern in the background.

A young man leans over a drawing board in a trench next to a stone wall. He looks at a white frame with string to help copy what he's seeing in the ground to his record sheet. — Ryan planning our pavement in 5E.

A large flagstone pavement through a trench, with smaller cobbles to the left along a medieval wall. — Ryan planning our pavement in 5E.

A view of a sunken stone building fenced in from a sea of dune grass and weeds. Rolling green-covered lumps and bumps are in the background. — The tower and the removed fence to allow our extension (Thanks, Stu!)

A young woman begins to trowel the surface of an extension to a trench along the front of the tower wall. — The tower and the removed fence to allow our extension (Thanks, Stu!)

We also removed some more rubble from the well room, which has still not been bottomed-out. The paparazzi did catch this rare photo of Claire Watson-Armstrong, and we were so excited to have her on site! She has been a vocal supporter of our work, and it meant a lot for us all to see her having a blast on the hunt for the medieval well.

A woman in a white hard hat smiles gleefully in a medieval stone chamber that extends far above her. She holds a small artefact up for the camera. A young man kneels beside her removing rubble. — Claire Watson-Armstrong down in the well room!

Thank you so much for following along this season! We appreciate your patience getting this final update posted, as we all went our separate ways Saturday morning and immediately back to our day jobs on Monday. We’ve gotten a chance to breathe and organise our thoughts, so expect more content over the next few weeks: Graeme’s season round-up, our masonry theories, 3D models, and our geophys interpretation. Finally, thanks again to Castle Studies Trust who supported us in our endeavours this season. You can read all about the work we were able to undertake so far from their generous grant at this link, and updates on on our results will also be accessible from there in addition to the main blog page.

And don’t forget about our post-ex week the 10th through 14th of September! We would love to see new and old faces there as we focus on finds processing, identification, and analysis!

Book Now for our 2023 Post-Excavation Week!

Posted on August 4, 2023 by bamburghresearchproject