What did they find in all those trenches?

 

Schoolhouse

 

The archaeological evidence from the schoolhouse points at three distinct phases of use defined by alterations to the interior space. These phases are considered here chronologically beginning with the construction of the building itself.

 

Construction

 

The construction of the building is in keeping with the 1760s date suggested by historical records. The building was generally of sound construction, although the north-eastern gable appears to have been less well built, perhaps contributing to its later collapse. The presence of the underlying turf-line and low quality stonework suggests that perhaps some corners were cut during construction of this gable. Perhaps this was due to the sloping natural subsoil, which required deeper foundations to the south west and thus a more stable gable. It is also possible that low quality repairs were made to the north-eastern gable, perhaps following subsidence.

 

Overall, however, very few alterations appear to have been made to the main fabric of the building.  To form the floor within the building the natural clay subsoil had been used. At the north-eastern end of the building this was accomplished by clearing the topsoil and levelling the subsoil beneath into a flat surface. To compensate for the east/west slope, deposits of stones (042 and 021) were placed upon the exposed subsoil, forming a foundation for the clay floor. It may be that the subsoil surface formed the original floor level but the clean, relatively un-trampled appearance of this deposit suggests otherwise.

 

The roof of the structure was originally thatched (Graham Bruce, pers. comm.) although the presence of pantiles shows that, probably in its final state, the roof had been tiled.

 

Phase 1 of this School’s Use

 

The original late eighteenth-century configuration of the schoolhouse appears to have consisted of two rooms, according with the description of the First Statistical Accounts of Scotland (Thomson 1799, 583-4). A third small room cannot be ruled out, however, and may have been located against the northwestern wall in the vicinity of the back window. Entering the schoolhouse would have required stepping down from threshold to the lower floor level in a large room which took up the south-western end of the building. The floor deposits in this room contained a lead pencil, which might suggest that this larger western room was the schoolroom.

 

Little evidence was encountered to suggest that the rooms in this phase had been decorated in any way. A number of nails and pieces of wood were found which may represent fittings and fixtures on the wall, but none were in situ. A likely explanation for this is that the interior walls were bare stone in the original phase of use. The internal dividing wall was likely to have been a timber frame, resting upon a stone foundation. This frame may have been covered with planks.

 

Alterations

 

It appears that, perhaps due to the softness of the subsoil, the floor in the north-eastern room, tentatively interpreted as the school master’s room, had subsided. A new floor was laid on top of a significant dump of stones which raised the interior level by approximately 0.2 m. The raised floor level may have had a number of intended effects such as stabilising the north-eastern gable and aiding drainage. Along with the change in floor level it appears that the internal layout of the rooms was changed.

 

 

Second Phase of this School’s use…

 

The second phase of the schoolhouse had also a minimum of two rooms. As with the first phase of use there was a step down into the structure and there may have been an additional room outside the excavated area. No direct evidence of internal walls was encountered, although the extents of clay and mortar floor surfaces at both the south-western end and the entrance suggest the location of divisions which were later removed. Taking these extents as the approximate room layout suggests that the southwestern room was no longer the larger of the two (main) rooms.

 

More significantly, the two sides of the structure appear to have been very different in character in this phase. The larger north-eastern room(s) had no surviving floor surface, suggesting that a timber floor was constructed here, whilst the south-western room had a clay floor which needed frequent repair. Similar contrasts between the rooms were seen in the fireplaces, which may have originally been similar simple hearths but had later both been improved, with the north-eastern fireplace becoming the finer of the two.

 

The walls and ceiling of the north-eastern room had been lined with lath and plaster and painted.

The second phase of the schoolhouse therefore saw a marked distinction between the north-eastern and south-western rooms. The larger part of the structure, the north-eastern room(s), had seen significant investment and improvement. The smaller, western room remained much as the previous phase, with a hard clay floor and bare stone walls. Artefacts relating to the use of the building as a school (a piece of writing slate (SF 39) and an inkwell (SF 55)) were recovered from both ends of the structure.

 

 

Abandonment

 

It is clear that after the building went out of use, most likely in the 1860s, a process of collapse began. This collapse was preceded and partially caused by the salvaging of useful, and valuable, materials from the schoolhouse. The timber floor and interior frame were removed along with roofing materials, leaving plaster collapsed directly on the sub-floor deposits in the north-eastern room. Salvaged pantiles can still be seen within the nearby Balnakiel Craft Village, for example. All window and door lintels had been removed as well as the sill stone from Window 2. Removal of timbers and stone may have resulted in the collapse of the north-eastern gable, a wall which was already unstable. The partially collapsed structure remained as a place in which rubbish was dumped, perhaps from the nearby manse, and later was used as an out-of-the-way (out of parental view perhaps) location.