MEASURED SURVEY AND BUILDING RECORDING
5.8 DOCUMENTATION
5.8.1 The range of sources The principal source of evidence in building analysis is always the structure itself, but crucial information can be provided by a variety of other sources. These can include documents and other forms of primary evidence, the oral evidence of individuals with local knowledge, and pictorial evidence including maps, drawings, prints and photographs as well as architectural plans. Secondary evidence including previous descriptions and published analyses of a building should also, of course, be assessed where available. In general, in conducting a detailed building analysis, all relevant forms of information about the building should be assessed in detail. In archaeological terminology, this study of material off site is often referred to as a 'desk top assessment'. The following description largely concerns sources of information in Scotland, but similar sources may be located elsewhere.
5.8.2 Documents The detailed study of documents can often throw new light on the history and development of buildings, even those which are thought to have been subject to scholarly consensus. Ideally, skills in interpreting documents of varied periods may require knowledge of palaeography (the study of handwriting), and often languages in addition to English.
These include Latin and its non-standard variations (for the medieval and Renaissance periods) and Scots (for Renaissance and post-Renaissance buildings). For some specialist areas, such as documents relating to royal buildings of the C 16, a knowledge of French, and the ability to understand non-standard conflations of different languages and common contractions, is a definite advantage. Documentary evidence can take a variety of forms including building accounts, receipts, private journals, estate papers, letters and legal material such as title deeds. The last can sometimes provide a surprising amount of architectural information. This is often the case, for example, with some title deeds relating to properties in the New Town of Edinburgh. Sometimes archival material can shed light on the people for whom a building was constructed, or on the identity of its designer. This was the case, for example, with a recent survey of the Glenfinnan Monument. Investigation of a cache of documents in the National Archives of Scotland (previously the Scottish Record Office) by RCAHMS revealed detailed information about its patron, Alexander Macdonald of Glenalladale, as well as the name of its architect, James Gillespie Graham.
5.8.3 Plans Original plans, where available, can usually help to clarify aspects of a building's origin or inception, intended primary form or later alteration. They are not always sufficient in detail and accuracy to be used as they stand in detailed structural analysis, but can form a basis for further investigation (Illus 75).
PLAN 4
Illus 75 An early plan of Kisimul Castle, Barra, incorporated as a vignette in a larger map of the Western Isles. (Crown copyright: RCAHMS)