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Desk Based Assessment

Date 2 October 1973

Event ID 706026

Category Recording

Type Desk Based Assessment

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/706026

NS79SE 40 7967 9358.

(NS 7967 9358) Supposed Site of (NAT) Dominican Monastery (NR) AD 1233 OS 1:500 map (1860)

There is now no trace of the Dominican friary which formerly existed at Stirling (RCAHMS 1963). The friary, dedicated to St Laurence, or according to Brockie, St Kentigern, was founded by Alexander II in 1233. It was destroyed by Reformers in 1559, and the Blackfriars' lands came into possession of the burgh in 1652 (Fr Brockie MS collections at St Mary's College, Blairs). The site was pointed out to the field surveyor in 1858 by the R C priest and Town Clerk, "situated on the E side of Murray Place and Maxwell Place, now occupied as a house and gardens, where great quantities of human bones have often been found."

Name Book 1858; D E Easson 1957

In 1835 when the Saracen's Head inn was being demolished for the erection of the Bank of Scotland, abundant evidence was obtained to show that what is now the bank garden was formerly a burial ground.

Trans Stirling Natur Hist Antiq Soc 1890

While demolishing nos. 58 and 60 Murray Place, an old wall was discovered. It was 46' long, 5' broad, with four buttresses 12' apart, each projecting 5' from the main wall. It is believed to have been the S wall of the Blackfriars Church. An abundance of human remains were also found. (Nimmo (1880), notes that for over 250 years, the Church was the chief place of worship in Stirling, with the burial ground adjacent). Ronald records that the Blackfriars' lands were bounded by a stone wall, whose S boundary is said locally to have been about Thistle Street.

J Ronald 1899; Trans Stirling Natur Hist Antiq Soc 1903.

Information from OS (IF) 2 October 1973

People and Organisations

References