Skáholt 2002 - Nabo

Corridor [30] (Main Corridor; CH)
The corridor was perhaps the most impressive space in the farm complex for its depth of
walls; considerably deeper than any other of the rooms, it is possibly an old part of the
farm retained through several centuries as a key architectural element. At the northern
end it survived to a height of c. 0.55m, but at the southern limit of excavation, its walls
reached 1.15m; although close to completion, primary floor level was not reached. Our
excavations affectively covered its northern half, running north-south for c. 18m and
1.2m wide. Its width seems remarkably narrow, especially with respect to the 1784 plan,
but then this plan is rarely accurate on dimensions. Although the depth of survival was
good, the walls of the corridor were robbed out in places, particularly the eastern wall.
Along the central part of the east side, the upper courses of stones were missing at several
points, but the major robbing occurred at the southern end of the eastern side. Initially
causing much confusion dur ing excavation, the wall section adjacent to the whey store
had been completely robbed of its stones down to a depth of c. 1m. While the northern
side of the access from the corridor into the whey store appears fairly clear (although
even here, there seems to be two possible phases), the southern side is much more
ambiguous because of this robbing episode, and given that the full extent of the whey
store has not been excavated yet, this part of the corridor may provide more surprises.
The first floor level reached in the corridor was a dark organic layer composed primarily
of animal dung [148] with occasional flat flagstones, especially along the eastern side and
near the base [158] which may be part of the roof collapse. It suggests that the corridor,
in its final stages at least, was used to shelter animals, but the layers below this have not,
as yet been excavated. Above this animal floor surface were the primary series of
roof/wall collapse deposits ([129], [140], [144], [155]) from the abandonment of the
corridor, with occasional peat ash dumps [141] against the western side. Later episodes of
turf collapse were represented by [133], [134], [119], [089], [091] and [076], with [119],
[091] and [076] containing lenses of peat ash, with another major peat ash dump horizon
marked by [079]. This series of collapse and peat-ash dumps suggests the ruin was
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