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Donald Dewar visits Holyrood excavations
30/04/1998
Scottish Secretary Donald Dewar today visited Holyrood as the archaeological survey of the site began prior to the building of the new Scottish Parliament.
Mr Dewar said that the start of the survey was another important milestone in the road to a Scottish Parliament and that it offered an unrivalled opportunity to examine the fascinating history of Scotland's capital. The first trial trench is being excavated by Historic Scotland in the gardens of Queensberry House and Mr Dewar was joined at the site by Canon Kenyon Wright, Chairman of the Scottish Constitutional Convention..
Mr Dewar said that the progress in the last year had been remarkable and he revealed that the final shortlist of design teams for the parliament building will be announced within the next fortnight.
Looking Back"The start of archaeological work is another milestone on the road to establishing Scotland's Parliament. It is Scottish Office policy to conduct appropriate archaeological and historical work in advance of new building and this site, at the heart of so much Scottish history, offers an unrivalled opportunity - before the site is developed - to examine the reality of that history in detail. The work is being carried out to schedule and maintains the momentum towards establishing the Scottish parliament.
"Historic Scotland have already examined documents and maps to establish as far as possible the history of the site. Their research highlights as many as five phases of activity and holds out fascinating prospects for the archaeology.
"The site offers a remarkable cross section of Scottish social history from medieval burgh to royal precint to the teeming activity of the industrialised society. The dig should provide invaluable information for Scottish historians."
The Secretary of State emphasised that the archaeology would not hold up progress on the establishment of the parliament. He said:
"Historic Scotland will dig a number of sample trenches on the site. Then larger scale excavations will carried out in the coming months before the site is cleared to make way for new building. The archaeologists are well practiced at extracting maximum information within a short period of time and progress on the building programme for the parliament, to be ready for the autumn session of 2001, will not be effected.
Looking forward"The architectural panel, which has been meeting to decide on a design team for the parliament building, has also been making good progress. There were seventy applications from design teams around the world and the next steps in the selection process are:
* the 12 shortlisted design teams to be interviewed at the beginning of May
* the announcement of the final shortlist of three or four teams shortly thereafter
* the design concepts from the three or four teams to go on public exhibition in June
* the final decision on the successful designer to be announced in July
* the final designs to be completed around the end of the year .
"Taken together with the start of archaeological work this timetable for the selection of the architectural team to design the new building demonstrates the good progress that is being made towards establishing Scotland's Parliament."
BACKGROUND
1. A total of 13 archaeological trenches will be dug on behalf of Historic Scotland on different parts of the parliament site. Larger scale excavations will then be carried out and it is anticipated that the archaeological assessment will be completed by the Spring of 1999. Time needed for the archaeological work has been built into the timetable for development of the site and building of the new parliament will not be delayed.
2. Historic Scotland's reseach identifies that prior to the twelfth century there may have been a settlement of timber buildings on the site. This was followed by the establishment of the medieval burgh of Canongate around the Augustinian Priory of Holyrood Abbey. The burgh, a separate entity from Edinburgh, consisted of narrow houses with plots of land running down to the line of the Cowgate which contained wells and industrial premises for skinners, tanners, masons, cutlers and shoe-makers.
3. From the end of the sixteenth century the Stewart kings redesigned the Holyrood area to serve the needs of the court with buildings described as 'much finer than the buildings in [Edinburgh's] High Street". After the departure of the court to London in 1603 the area continued as a mix of prestigious houses and the properties of merchants and tradesmen, the grandest of which was Queensberry House - which still stands on the parliament site.
4. From the beginning of the nineteenth century the area changed rapidly with population density rising sharply to 220 per acre. Later in the century the construction of a major brewing complex began whose output, at the beginning of the 20th century, accounted for a quarter of the entire ale production of Scotland.
News Release: 0878/98
April 30, 1998