Watching Brief

Date 23 February 1998

Event ID 921901

Category Recording

Type Watching Brief

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/921901

NM 9713 3494. A watching brief was conducted during the excavation of a hole designed to provide a base for the Ardchattan Cross at the Valliscaulian priory, first constructed in the early 13th century. The location chosen was the upstanding arch, connecting the nave and the choir, in order to shelter the slab from the elements.

Much disarticulated skeletal material, most of it evidently human, was recovered from a general graveyard soil. At 450mm below the modern ground surface an articulated burial was found at the N end of the trench. Fragments of wood, with a corroded iron attachment, presumably part of a coffin, ran parallel to the N of the skeleton. Parts of the pelvis, with fingers resting on it, and the top of the right femur were noted, but the left (S) side appeared to have been truncated.

Sponsor: Historic Scotland

D Murray 1998

Kirkdale Archaeology