ARDROSSAN Castle Heritage Society recently held a public meeting in the Church of the Nazarene to update local people on the Society’s recent activities.

Secretary Dr Amanda Simpson introduced three prominent speakers. 

Dr David Caldwell was reared in Ardrossan and had his primary and secondary education at Ardrossan Academy. After graduating with a degree in archaeology from Edinburgh University he spent 38 years working for the National Museums of Scotland. When he retired in February 2012, he was keeper of two of its five departments - Scotland and Europe, and Archaeology. He is the current President of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland. 

Dr Oliver O’Grady is an archaeologist, researcher and heritage consultant while Tom Rees is the archaeologist-proprietor of Rathmell Archaeology, a leading provider of commercial archaeological services.

David spoke of the Barclay and Montgomerie families who occupied the Castle between the twelfth and seventeenth centuries. He mentioned the strategic location of the Castle and compared it with other castles of its era, ranking it as impressive.

Tom gave a presentation on the test pit digs on the Castle Hill which he supervised in 2013. This consisted of having volunteers dig 26, 50 centimetre square holes up to a metre deep. Artefacts, including medieval pottery, were extracted from the displaced soil. These indicated that there were humans living on the Hill hundreds of years ago. They could have been people who worked for the wealthy occupants of the Castle.

Oliver reported on the magnetometer and resistivity surveys he conducted on the Hill in 2015 and 2016. These involved using meters to measure the magnetic field and electrical resistance of the soil. The resulting data can indicate the presence of objects below ground level. He revealed that there were two ditches around the Castle and a wall around the Church and Graveyard. He concurred with Tom’s view that humans inhabited the Hill centuries ago.

During the question and answer session that followed, the speakers agreed that the Castle Hill was a very rich site in archaeological terms. Several feet below the present ground level may lie many artefacts that would reveal much more about the Castle, Church, Hill and its inhabitants.

Following the success of this summer’s Ardrossan Castle Carnival, the Heritage Society is busy preparing for next year’s Carnival on June, 17 2017.

The Society meets on the first Tuesday of each month at 7pm in Ardrossan Indoor Bowling Club in Glasgow Street. 

New members will be made welcome.