We returned to Cammo at the beginning of February after our winter break.

Once the consolidation work being carried out for City of Edinburgh MDC had been completed on the walls, including clearing the ivy and undergrowth, we returned to the Walled  Garden.  One group continued working in the glasshouse area, hoping to uncover a possible entrance in the middle of the long side, and a small team returned to the Stable Block to clear the final area there. Investigation into the central part of the Garden was also started, looking for the summer house or conservatory,

Work in the centre of the Walled Garden has so far revealed part of a complex and confusing building, marked on plans from the later 19th century. The cross-hatching on the historic plans suggest almost all of it had a glass roof, though there is a very small part marked with diagonal stripes indicative of slates or tiles.

To date we have found quite a deep, rectangular, brick structure to the west with no apparent entrance, adjoining a larger rectangular area, also with brick walls and a threshold stone to the north .  There is large flag stone and part of a broken one running lengthways along the centre of the building.

A cast iron pipe, probably for water, runs through the wall at one corner.  We have also found several long cast iron rods and bars that probably came from the frame of the glass roof.  Unsurprisingly large amounts of glass have been found, but about half of this is striated, which is unlikely to have come from roofing or usual greenhouse windows.  Most of this  ‘frosted’ glass was found at the east end of the excavation.  We are speculating that there may have been a door with a glass panel in it.  We have also found bits of door knobs and a key across different parts of the site.

There is an interesting mason’s mark on one of the dressed stones. 

                          Purchase of a new iPad means finds are now recorded digitally on site, which will help us keep records more efficiently.

We are hopeful that continuing excavation will give us greater understanding of what this building was and how it was used.