Excavations beneath the High Street, Edinburgh

The cobbles along Edinburgh’s High Street, the central artery of the Old Town Edinburgh World Heritage Site required cleaning and repair. In addition to the normal problems of access on infrastructure works, these works were going to expose archaeological remains of national significance, including one of Scotland’s first parliament buildings all within the public eye. All the archaeological remains had therefore to be exposed, recorded and preserved in situ in a cost effective and ethical manner with no delay to the build schedule.

Following discussion with our client, Land Engineering, and the City of Edinburgh Council Archaeologist, AOC Archaeology Group were able to devise a suitable methodology, comprising an archaeological watching brief with a flexible team structure that fluctuated with the ever changing demands of the build schedule and the essentially unpredictable nature of archaeological remains.

Given the close working relationship developed by AOC Archaeology Group with the City of Edinburgh Council Archaeologist and Land Engineering, there were no delays to the schedule caused by recording of the archaeological remains exposed during the works.

In addition to the positive PR garnered in the local press, AOC Archaeology Group will be giving a lecture at the 2007 Edinburgh and East Lothian Archaeology Conference. The final works required to meet planning conditions is the post-excavation analyses and publication of the results, which is currently ongoing.
 
AOC Project Manager: Murray Cook
AOC Fieldwork Director: Sarah Lynchehaun
Client: Land engineering (on behalf of the City of Edinburgh Council)