Contents

1. Summary

2. Introduction

3. Method

4. Results

5. Conclusions

6. Figures
Section of 1896 0.S, map showing pump (well) position. Scaled to 1: 1000
Surveyed areas superimposed on 1815 map. Scaled to 1: 1000
Surveyed areas, linear array lines and bulldozed material ridges
Coordinates in local grid. Scale 1:200
Resistive Plots.
6.4.1. Combined plot areas 1 and 2.
6.4.2. Linear array plots 1, 2, 3 and 4.
6.4.3. Linear array plots 5, 6 and 7.
6.4.4. Linear array depth slice plots 0.5, 1.O, 1.5, and 2.0 metres.
6.4.5. Linear array depth slice plots 2.5 and 3.0 metres.
6.4.6. Resistive plot area 3.

7. Acknowledgements
 EDINBURGH ARCHAEOLOGICAL FIELD SOCIETY

Geo~hysicalInvestigation Adi acent to the Excavations

at Cramond, Edinburgh

1. Summary

Three area ground resistance surveys were carried out to the west of the Society's
excavations at Cramond. The excavations comprised a series of trenches that ran
approximately north from the Roman fort to the bathhouse. The report on this
excavation is in preparation.

The first two surveys were made in an attempt to follow the line of a substantial
mortared wall that crossed the most northerly of these trenches (see DES 1997,32)
The third extended from the western side of the trench line almost to the wall
adjoining Glebe Road, previously called New Street, and was made in order to see
whether remains of a vennel, that ran westwards to a well, could be detected.
The vennel, off Old Street with buildings alongside is shown on the 1815 map.

The first survey in 1999 appeared to show the continuation of the wall for some 8
metres with a possible turn through a right angle. The second, more complete survey
made later in the year, showed a diffuse high resistance area more suggestive of
demolition debris The readings of these two surveys have been combined and
following a series of resistive linear array measurements the demolition debris theory
appears more likely.

The third area resistance survey shows the western end of the vennel as a line of
medium to low resistance values with a high resistance area of probable paving round
the well and possibly building remains, at its western end. Other high resistance areas
are probably due to demolished buildings across which the transect cuts.

2. Introduction

The archaeological excavation on the Scheduled Monument area between the Roman
fort and bath house took place, with Historic Scotland permission, over a number of
years and was completed in December 2001. The ground resistance surveys were
conducted in parallel with the dig in an attempt to relate possible Roman, medieval
and later features in the trenches to what lay to the west.

The whole area was part of the policies of Cramond House with the medieval and
later village on both sides of Glebe Road, however in about 1826 the villagers on the
eastern side of Glebe Rd were moved and the village was demolished. Topsoil
appears to have been dumped over the demolished village and the area became part of
the parkland with kennels being built some time before the issue of the 1893 O.S. 25"
map. The well is shown on this map as "pump" and an investigation by the Society
 found items that could have been used to convert the original open well into a pumped
water source.
This area of parkland, now considerably overgrown, lies to the north of Cramond
church at NGR NT 1899 7698.
Geologically it is within the Lower Oil Shale Group of the Carboniferous Series and
is situated on the eastern edge of a band of Ravelstone Sandstone that runs
approximately N-S and can be seen outcropping beside the road to the north of the
Cram~ndInn.
From the excavation carried out by the Society the solid geology is known to be
overlaid by fluvio-glacial deposits of clay and till with, in places, water running
through raised beach level sands over clay deposits. This geology would thus be
expected to show low resistance in the waterlogged levels at about 2 metres depth
with better draining higher resistance soils above; the bedrock, at an unknown depth,
should show as high resistance

In levelling the car park, to the east of Cramond Inn, the City of Edinburgh Council
bulldozed a considerable amount of earth, together with possible Roman bath house
and other material up the hill and over this site. This has resulted in the depth of
topsoil being greater and more variable at the northern end of the site.

3. Method

All three area ground resistance surveys were carried out using a Geoscan Research
RM4 resistance meter mounted on a PA1 twin electrode array which has a probe
spacing of 0.5 metres. This spacing gives ground resistance measurement to a depth
of 0.5 to 0.75 metres. Readings were taken at 1.0 metre intervals with the remote
probes located not less than 20 metres from the area being surveyed. Displayed
. readings were manually recorded and were initially printed out from a computer
running Microsoft EXCEL in the absence of any other available programme. In 2000
the Society received a grant from the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland to purchase
the Geoscan Research Geoplot software and the manually recorded values were
entered into this programme giving a printout that can be better manipulated and more
easily interpreted.
Fig. 6.1 shows the position of the well (pump) on the 1893 O.S. map and Fig. 6.2
shows the areas of the sets of readings superimposed on the 1815 map. Both maps
have been changed to a scale of 1 : 1000.

The linear array is basically a computer controlled Wenner array.

Readings were taken with a Campus Geopulse earth resistance meter connected to a
line of 25 equally spaced electrodes with an inter-electrode spacing of 1.0 metre.
Apparent resistivities were measured using a lap-top computer running "Image7'
software by Campus which automatically takes readings from different combinations
of electrodes. The computer programme controls into which electrodes current is
injected and between which pairs of electrodes voltage readings are taken for the
computation of resistivities. The total number of readings taken was 92 on each line
giving pseudo-sections of length 22 metres; the range of readings was at different
lateral positions and depths. The ground over which the survey was made was
comparatively level and thus the facility to correct the pseudo-section topographically
was not required. Survey data was processed using "Res2Dinv7'produced by
Advanced Sciences Inc. The programme automatically applies an iterative,
smoothness-constrained, least-squares inversion of the recorded apparent resistivities
to produce a two dimensional model of the sub-surface. A hrther section of the
computer programme combined the results of the seven sets of measurements and
gave printouts of horizontal "slices" at 0.5 metre depth intervals over the area
covered.
The lines along which the linear array measurements were made are superimposed, in
Fig. 6.3, on the area surveys. Four of these were made along N-S lines, in the local
grid, and the remaining three at right-angles across the first four. It should be noted
that due to topographical difficulties the linear array measurements are not
symmetrically placed over the area survey. Linear array electrodes can be placed
between trees that preclude a filler area survey.
The linear array readings were taken and the computer printouts supplied by Dr.
Bruce Hobbs of the University of Edinburgh Department of Geology and Geophysics.

4. Results

The resistive plots of the two area surveys made in 1999 are combined and shown in
Figs. 6.4.1. The original assessment of the first results now appears to have been over
optimistic in the suggestion that the line of the mortared wall could be followed as its
depth is likely to be at the limit of detection of the RM4.
The second survey extended the area covered by the first after a considerable section
of spoil hezp had been moved. No clear linear high resistance lines appear that could
be construed as wall footings in the area surveys but, as the topsoil depth is known to
be variable, it was thought that they might lie below the detection depth of the RM4.
The linear array sections and the derived horizontal "slices" similarly do not show
linear features even at depths below which any bulldozing debris might have been
present. The linear array results are shown in Figs. 6.4.2, 6.4.3, 6.4.4. and 6.4.5.

The area survey westwards towards the wall of Glebe Road was to the south-west of
the area affected by the bulldozing and was thus believed to have a limited build-up of
topsoil after the demolition of the village. A large amount of undergrowth required to
be removed before the area could be measured into the grid associated with the trench
layout and even after this was done the survey was limited by the presence of mature
trees. Had this limitation not been placed on the survey the area would have been
extended fi-om its 8 metre width to include hopefilly more of the building on the
northern side. The resistive plot is shown in Fig. 6.4.6.

5. Conclusions

The resistance surveys to the west of trench H that were made in the attempt to trace
the line of the mortared wall were in the area subject to variable topsoil thickness due
to bulldozing. The lines of the ridges of bulldozed material are indicated in Fig.6.3
overlayed on the surveyed areas in a plot dimensioned in the local grid (inclined 19*
E of grid N) The diffuse high resistances might be due to Roman or other debris
moved up the hill fi-om the top of the bath house, to later dumping or to demolition
debris from one of the houses on the western side of Old Street. As hypocaust tile was
found in the upper contexts of the excavation and at a lower level the apparently
deliberately toppled fiont wall of a house in Old Street all are possible.
 The linear array "slice" printouts show a significant high resistance between 1.5 and
3.0 metres in depth which is below the level of any possible bulldozed material; this
high resistance is around coordinate point 75.70. and lies within the area survey.
High resistance at 0.5 and 1.0 metres depth does not align with this and is nearer
coordinate point 70.73. this lies to the northwest of the area survey and from the
topographic survey appears to be at the end of a ridge of bulldozed material.

The area of high resistance at greater depth must relate to demolition debris or the
foundations of the houses existing in 1826 or possibly to earlier structures over which
these houses were built; its d i a s e nature suggests a debris spread. Comparison of the
ground resistance survey and the preliminary results of excavation with the layout of
the village shown in the 1815 map are the basis for this conclusion. The high
resistance that lies outside the area survey, found in the linear array measurements, is
not likely to be associated with the demolition of the village and it and the shallower
high resistance within the area could possibly be Roman bath house material
(although this is unlikely due to the limited damage to the top of the bath house during
the bulldozing). It is more likely to be due to later material that overlay the bath house
or be the result of more recent dumping. Different areas of shallow high resistance
could be due to different causes.

The area survey towards Glebe Road was not well aligned on the vennel but appears
to confirm the line of the west end of the vennel which ran to the well. The surface of
Old Street was found in the excavation to the N.E. of the vennel and was cobbled. The
north-south low resistance on the extreme east of the survey is probably the surface of
Old St. into which the vennel joins. The area ground resistance survey made some 200
metres to the south in the walled garden (EAFS Geophysics Occ. Paper 1) indicated a
water retentive surface on Old St. The rather variable low resistance strip along the
. western 20 metres of the survey possibly indicates a surface that has been clay bonded
and is similar to Old Street. The vennel appears as shallow low resistances about the
14 metre mark in linear array lines 4,5 and 6 and wider and at the 8 metre mark in 7.
The well is still open and the survey was conducted round it; the high resistance
values recorded indicate that the area within about 1.0 metre was either paved or
cobbled. Comparison of the 1815 map with the 1893 0.S. suggests that the extension
of the high resistance to the west of the well might indicate that the pump was moved
from the well site and mounted on the end wall of a building. Some high resistance
along the northern border of the survey aligns reasonably with the building shown on
the 1815 map and the high resistances at the 12 metre mark on linear array lines 5 and
6 are coincident with these. Buildings shown on the south side of the vennel might
have been expected to have been detected more clearly. No indication is given on the
map of the of type of building material and it is possible that, if some were of wood,
the resistance is not likely to differ greatly from the road dirt surface. Changes could
have been made to the buildings in the vennel in the period between the 1815 dated
map and the demolition of 1826.
These resistance surveys can be seen as making a contribution to the understanding of
the archaeology adjacent to the excavation made by the Society. Extensive demolition
debris does appear to exist on the west side of Old Street with fbrther debris at a
shallower depth to the N.E. The vennel survey does confirm part of its line to the well
and some building debris on the south side but is less clear as it angles through the
buildings towards the south-eastern corner.