Excavation

Date 31 May 1993 - 18 June 1993

Event ID 1000758

Category Recording

Type Excavation

Permalink http://canmore.org.uk/event/1000758

Elements of the S range were excavated in June 1993, during which the W half elaborate undercroft beneath the latrine block/reredorter at the extreme SE corner of the claustral circuit was cleared of robbing collapse. The evidence so far clearly shows that this structure and the adjacent Novices' Day Room were part of an integrated complex of high status changers dating from the early 13th century. The two rooms were built from the same artificial terrace and were linked by an extremely finely constructed ornamental archway inmplying easy access and possibly allied function. One possible explanation for the newly-discovered chamber is that it was the abbey infirmary, as in Margam Abbey, Glamorgan.

Over 130 fragments of moulded stone - mainly from the vaulted ceiling of the chamber - were retrieved from the excavation, having apparently been discarded when the site was robbed regularly from the late 17th century. Clear evidence was also found of a period of subdivision and structural repair within the S range, with the blocking of the W door and infill of the massive garderobe slots in favour of smaller garderobe pits. All this is indicative of a reduction in the communal occupation of the cloister, perhaps in response to subsidence or partial collapse of the southern walls of the range, which necessitated reinforcing the S walls by blocking redundant garderobe chutes.

Sponsor: Historic Scotland.

G Ewart 1993.