Excavation
Date 1994
Event ID 1005768
Category Recording
Type Excavation
Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1005768
NS 7969 9355 Reappraisal of the records in Central Region Archives confirmed that the old wall recorded in 1903 (supra) when the existing tenement replaced earlier buildings (at what is now 64 Murray Place) was the S wall of the Blackfriars Church.
Permission to excavate in the garden behind the property was kindly givem by all six of the joint owners. The end of the 1904 wall base was uncovered, and found to be of very solid construction, having survived the post-Reforrnation robbing out. Beyond the clear evidence of the exploratory digging that in 1904 had shown robbing out had taken place we found mortar and rubble debris indicating the line of the wall eastwards. The ground had been greatly disturbed, not only in the robbing out, but also in the cultivation of gardens since before 1858. Many human bone fragments were found, and the greater part of a female skeleton, accompanied by pieces of the bones of two infants, on a bed of clay close beside the S wall of the church. The skeleton had been partly destroyed when the wall had been robbed. If the buttress pattern of the 1904 wall had continued, there would have been a buttress where the skeleton was found, suggesting that the eastern end of the churchwas older and of simpler construction. The N wall was located, and the eastern end of the church. This was traversed by two functioning main drains, two earlier abandoned main drains, a field drain, and a water supply pipe. However, it was possible to see that the end of the church was apsidal, probably round, or conceivably polygonal. The width of the church was 6.5m internally, with walls 1.5m thick, making overall width 9.5m. We have added 13.Sm to the length of 14m recorded in 1904, making the total known length 27.5m.
E R Page and C Page 1994.
For a detailed history of the formation of the Blackfriars of Stirling, using historical documents, see "Blackfriars of Stirling", by R and C Page (MS 2600)
