Excavation

Date 22 July 2010 - 30 September 2011

Event ID 959646

Category Recording

Type Excavation

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/959646

A programme of archaeological intrusive works and survey was undertaken at Kilwinning Abbey from August 2010 to September 2011 as part of the Kilwinning Community Archaeology Project. In total twenty-four trenches were opened within the grounds of the Scheduled Monument. The trenches were in general 3m by 2m in size and investigated the three Ranges, Cloister Garth, Southern Aisle, Western Transept and the Abbey Green. These trenches excavated through redeposited excavation spoil from the earlier excavations to re-expose the upper surface of the retained significant archaeological horizon to enable its characterisation. A large amount of artefacts were recovered, throughout all of the trenches. While the majority of the material was eighteenth to modern in date; far older artefacts were recovered in the form of medieval white gritty ware and reduced ware pottery. The most significant finds recovered were two pieces of incised slate one of which had been incised with graffiti gaming boards, also known as a Merelles Board. In addition to these trenches a series of six test pits were excavated in open public ground around Kilwinning to continue to search for medieval material in other portions of the burgh. Building recording works sought to recover an accurate base plan of the Abbey and to survey the boundary wall of the parish church graveyard to identify visible architectural fragments that derived from the medieval Abbey.

Information from Oasis (rathmell1-146723) 27 March 2013